- Since 2010, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare has worked in conjunction with The New Mentality, a youth networking association, that connects groups across Ontario in order to empower youth, and to bring awareness and reduce stigma surrounding mental health. The New Mentality engagement group representing Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare and the Regional Children's Centre has been known as i-AM Youth. i-AM Youth is operated by a number of passionate members who support and aim to empower youth in Windsor-Essex County.
Both groups, The New Mentality and i-AM Youth, are sponsored by Children's Mental Health Ontario (CMHO). As part of the Ministry of Children & Youth Services Moving on Mental Health, Youth Engagement is a key process that has been identified as a priority across the province. Lead Agencies across Ontario are charged with developing a Youth Engagement strategy in their Service Area.
HDGH, as the Lead Agency for Windsor-Essex, has been working with our community's core mental health providers in developing a Youth Engagement strategy that will provide a menu of options for youth to be meaningfully involved in the field of child and youth mental health. Regional Children's Centre, Family Respite Services, Children First, and Maryvale Adole
scent & Family Services have received training on Youth Engagement and have struck a Steering Committee with youth to develop a dynamic and robust Youth Engagement strategy. It is expected that this work will lead to a new strategy for youth engagement in our community that will be aligned with Moving on Mental Health as an integral aspect of Ontario's Mental Health and Addictions Strategy.
As our relationship with i-AM Youth comes to a close, we would like to convey our appreciation towards i-AM Youth for the work they have accomplished in our organization and in our community, and wish its members success with their future endeavours.
