Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

In 2014, the Cree Board of Health and Social Services for James Bay (CBHSSJB) created the Iiyuu Ahtaawin Miyupimaatisiiun Planning (IAMP) project, to support communities in developing their own plans for Miyupimaatisiiun (Cree term for health). The CBHSSJB then partnered with a group of McGill researchers to evaluate the ongoing progress of IAMP. While many of the items that the IAMP identified as priorities for health change were specific to youth (defined as 10 to 29 years of age), youth have not yet been formally engaged in the IAMP evaluation project to ask them what they think or what they need. Therefore, this project aims to (1) review the evidence of Indigenous youth voices and engagement in health planning across Canada, and (2) understand how Cree youth perceive youth health, and how they are engaged in health-related activities and planning in the community. Following a review of the literature, we spoke with the youth themselves. Together with our research partners from the CBHSSJB and the Nemaska Cree community, we asked ten Cree youth and five key informants what health meant to them, and how they were engaged in health-related activities in the community and/or across the James Bay Cree region. We used focus groups and one-on-one interviews; these conversations were transcribed with consent, and we conducted thematic analysis to find common interpretations among participants. Interpretations will be verified and validated by our Cree partners. The researchers expect that the youth ideas and perspectives offer important information that will help create new and adapt existing material, in order to assist local and regional leaders who plan for better health in the James Bay Cree communities. This project will also help reduce the gap in Indigenous voices in health and healthcare research across Canada.