Grant: Training Grant: SPOR National Training Entity - LOI

Engaging youth in research is valuable across the disciplines, including health and wellbeing, health promotion, and mental health. Youth are often underrepresented in mental health and/or substance use (MHSU) research and service development initiatives, limiting the ability to address the unique needs of this developmental stage. Reflecting a commitment to youth-engaged research, the Margaret and Wallace McCain Centre for Child, Youth & Family Mental Health co-developed the McCain Model of Youth Engagement together with youth with lived experience of MHSU challenges. Leveraging the team's commitment, we then collaborated with pan-Canadian partners, including youth, on the INNOVATE Research project, in which we co-developed with youth a thorough youth engagement curriculum for researchers. We then delivered the training in full-day workshops, together with coaching sessions and a webinar, to researchers across Canada. Given this experience, we are poised and ready to bring a Youth MHSU Component to the NTE as an essential ingredient. By specifically including a youth MHSU component, SPOR will ensure that this often overlooked population is directly targeted by national capacity development endeavors. This component will leverage a strong existing team that has made substantial progress in moving toward the goals of the NTE, in an important population subset. This project will also enable established national leaders and emerging researchers to expand upon and enhance their leadership role in transforming youth-engaged MHSU research processes and agendas. The team will collaborate with the winning applicants to integrate youth engagement into the NTE as a whole and to examine how our learnings intersect with or build upon engagement in other spheres. We will also rapidly scale up the existing INNOVATE Research training platform and establish a national networking forum for youth-engaged researchers to share their experiences and build new collaborations.