Engaging Children and Youth to Take Action to Promote Their Well-being

Members of our team led the development of the first comprehensive child and youth well-being data profile for Nova Scotia, released in April 2022. This report, called One Chance To Be a Child, provides an evidence-informed snapshot of well-being among children and youth in the province. The purpose of this planning and dissemination grant is to support diverse children and youth within Nova Scotia to reflect on, and act upon, the One Chance report recommendations. Our objectives are to: 1) Engage children and youth in conversations that can advance the six recommendations of the One Chance report, and 2) Support children and youth to plan a youth-led forum with decision-makers to identify key policy actions that can move the One Chance recommendations forward. We will use a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) approach to engage young people in this work. For objective 1, ten children and youth from diverse backgrounds will be invited to participate in a Youth Leadership Team (YLT). Once the YLT is formed, we will convene a 1-day sense-making workshop, facilitated by the project team. At this workshop, the YLT will learn about the findings of the One Chance report. For objective 2, the YLT will plan and deliver a 3-hour youth-led forum, aimed at engaging decision-makers in priority-setting based on identified actions for the six recommendations from the report. The forum will be open to decision-makers from government and youth-serving organisations. During the forum, the YLT and decision-makers will be invited to develop a shared action plan for moving the One Chance recommendations forward. By engaging young people in critical reflection, visioning and planning around the One Chance report recommendations, and engaging decision-makers in conversations about what actions are feasible to advance the report recommendations, we will close the knowledge-to-action gap to improve child and youth well-being.