Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Over the last few years, the James Bay Cree region has been working on the Iiyuu Ahtaawin Miyupimaatisiiun Planning initiative (IAMP) to improve health and health care services. Each of the nine Cree communities has been encouraged to get together to decide what their health priorities are and how they can be met. While many of the identified health priorities are directly related to youth (under 25 years of age), the discussions and evaluations thus far have not engaged the youth themselves, nor asked them what they think or need. The goal of this project is to give a voice to the Cree youth: to firstly review the evidence of best practices to engage Indigenous youth in health research, and ultimately to co-design a strategy to engage Cree youth in IAMP. Accordingly, we would like to ask James Bay Cree youth three questions: What do you believe to be your role in your health research and planning? What are the facilitators and barriers to such participation? And what are your priorities for change in your own health? We will adopt a community-based participatory research approach, which features the inclusion of youth as equal partners in the study. Through focus groups and individual interviews, we will gather information together with youth from the Oujé-Bougoumou Cree community who have already shown strong interest in youth involvement in health planning. This project builds upon a strong existing partnership between the Cree Health Board and McGill research team. The results will fill the missing knowledge gap for James Bay regarding what Cree youth believe to be the best strategies for engaging and gathering young 'voices' about health and healthcare, and preliminary insights on priorities.