Grant: Team Grant: HCIS - Urban Indigenous Health

"Supporting Healthy Lifestyle Choices to Promote Mental Health & Wellbeing of Indigenous Youth Aging-Out-of-Care in Urban Settings" will support the development and adaptation of interventions designed to support Indigenous youth aging out of care in urban settings. Rooted in Indigenous holistic concepts of well-being and a cultural land-based model, the project will centre collaborative work with Indigenous youth, Indigenous care practitioners, Elders/Knowledge Holders and Friendship Centres to develop creative and innovative action plans to address the complex challenges that arise prior to and during the transition out-of-care in urban settings. In this way, the model and method will focus on building and implementing interventions in urban Indigenous community settings that enable increased access for Indigenous youth to physical, social, and cultural supports that support them in utilizing wellbeing centered decision-making ("healthy lifestyle choices"). The goals of the study include: 1) adapting interventions designed to support mental health and well-being for Indigenous youth aging-out-of-care in urban settings that emphasize wellbeing centred decision-making ("healthy lifestyle choice"); 2) developing culturally based wellbeing indicators with and for Indigenous youth (ages 12-24); 3) expanding the knowledge based of care practitioners working with Indigenous youth aging-out-of-care to be inclusive of Indigenous life path preparations that support holistic wellbeing and life preparedness in an urban environment; 4) evaluating the intervention to assess scalability and adaptation to other relevant populations in urban contexts; and 5) developing and sharing knowledge resources for Indigenous and non-Indigenous care practitioners aimed at supporting the mental health and well-being of Indigenous youth aging-out-of-care in urban contexts.