October 22, 2010 - The mindyourmind Youth Street Team 2009-2010 consisted of a group of nine dedicated youth volunteers, excited about making a difference! Teamed up to promote mental health awareness, the participants identified, planned, created, and implemented several projects to increase awareness and diminish stigma.

In an effort to send a message to professionals, service providers and educators that work with youth, the participants created several materials to promote the use of innovative and web-based social media tools to enhance practice with youth clients. With 99% of Canadians being online , it is how they obtain information, build communities and social networks, how they communicate, and even obtain support.

The mindyourmind Street Team wanted to ensure that health care professionals are using mindyourmindpro.ca and technology to connect with youth in the best way possible. One of the participants, Erin, age 24, notes, "Our objective for the pro poster was to capture the attention of mental health professionals and point them in the direction of the tech world as a platform for reaching their youth clients. Since youth use the internet and text on their cell phones as primary modes of communication with their friends, having a mental health professional contact them in this way would help them feel safer in their comfort zone."

The posters, designed to encourage the use of technology in practice with youth clients, are available for download.

Additional accomplishments of the 2009 - 2010 mindyourmind Street Team, to name just a few, include participation as youth facilitators in the South West Regional Conference 2009-2010: Mental health and addictions in children and youth, a conference organized by The Provincial Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental health at CHEO and the Ministry of Child and Youth Services, the creation of short videos for mindyourmind.ca, and an appearance on Mental Health Talk, a show on the University of Western Ontario's radio station, CHRW, to discuss issues of stigma.

For further information, contact us.