Youth Health Engagement Toolkit

Health care decisions directly affect Canadian youth, and their lived experience can inform changes to health policies. Youth engagement can inform public policies at varying levels, with health being near the top of the list of importance. Organizations must know how to use youth and their expertise properly to influence policies within the healthcare system that directly affect them to enact change country wide.

Traditionally, youth engagement is tokenistic whereby youth’s input and ideas have little or no influence on the work that’s being done. Youth are not empowered to make decisions that affect them, but rather recruited to participate in superficial ways. Within health spaces, this can look like inconsistently asking for their input without providing context and the necessary information to make informed decisions, not following up with youth, and not having youth that are representative of the target population - this can be in terms of number of youth present and the characteristics of youth.

The Sandbox Project is seeking partnerships with organizations across Canada, where we can utilize the expertise of the broader community to create a Youth Health Engagement Toolkit that helps the youth healthcare system and the individuals making policy related decisions. Alongside our equity team, we will seek to identify specific youth that may be excluded/marginalized in the youth healthcare system. The goal of this project is to assess and recommend how to engage youth in making decisions regarding health, education, and wellbeing where youth require care. We hope to suggest specific policy modifications and resources that are necessary for vulnerable youth populations. 

Through this project, our goal is to facilitate youth engagement around policy across Canada by minimizing the gap that exists between youth and broader organizations. With this, we hope to foster healthy connections and positive relationships between community-based organizations and local youth to provide a platform where youth have a seat at the table in terms of decisions around policy. Youth are not only future leaders, but current leaders who can make change right now that will affect both today and tomorrow. If we can help amplify the voices of youth leaders, it will help youth to have a seat at decision making tables. The toolkit would enable decision makers to seek the advice of youth more easily in the decisions that directly and indirectly affect them. 

If you are interested in collaborating, supporting this project, or have any questions, please email ssmith@sandboxproject.ca.