The Project:
Despite Canada’s high ranking of supportive economic and social conditions for youth development, we rank poorly in terms of mental health and happiness1,2. This situation is worrying, especially when we know how important resources in our environments and supports from relationships are to mental health and wellbeing.
If we truly believe that “When provided with appropriate supports, young people can reach their full potential to the benefit of all Canadians,”3 we need to be more aware and intentional of how physical and social environments support young people’s mental health and well-being.
Our project involves 22 youth, aged 15-18, from diverse communities of Halifax, Nova Scotia. We have worked with our support team to explore what doing well looks like and the factors in our communities that support this.
What we did:
We used a participatory action research framework to work together as a team!4 A team is made up of individuals, so we started by each of us reflecting on our own experiences of well-being and the factors that support it. We did this by taking photographs, which we then discussed in individual interviews with the support team. This helped us gain a richer understanding of our own experiences and context.
We then brought the highlights from our interviews into a group discussion. Working as a team and reflecting on these key highlights, we could explore our experiences in greater depth. We did this through a large-group discussion and smaller-group workshops, where we could reflect more deeply on what well-being looks like and what supports it.
We then worked together to analyse the data using thematic analysis5. Once we had the findings established, we worked on sharing them. See our game stats for more information.
The Goal: Youth Well-being
We have done this work to support the well-being of young people in our communities and ourselves. But what do we mean by well-being? For us, well-being is about being healthy mentally and physically – we are complete systems, and these two parts work together! So the whole system has to be functioning well. Functioning well doesn’t mean we’re not sick. It means we are actually doing well and are better able to handle the situation when the game – life – doesn’t go the way we hoped.
If we are physically and mentally healthy, we will also have healthy relationships and be able to participate in our community, contributing where help is needed and getting help when we need it. We will be able to thrive in our educational and work spaces.
For us, well-being is about being our optimal selves, as whole people!