Since 2020 the McCall MacBain Foundation has granted in youth mental health and well-being as a complement to our experience in youth leadership and growth opportunities for high school and university students. Many of the youth-serving organizations that we partner with in our Education & Scholarships strategy, including post-secondary institutions and community organizations, have noted for years that mental health among youth has been worsening. We know that this is fueled by everything from cost-of-living concerns to the climate crisis. Many of our partners saw these trends only worsen through the pandemic, with an increase in social isolation and a disruption to many activities that naturally foster well-being and resilience, such as organized sports and extracurriculars.
This increase in mental health concerns has led to a greater demand that youth-serving organizations– whether post-secondary institutions or local non-profits – do more to support young people meaningfully through these challenges. In some cases, the community organizations we support may be offering programs that directly address mental healthcare needs, such as the YMCA of Greater Vancouver’s Y-Mind program. In other cases, youth-serving organizations may see an opportunity to layer mental health considerations and expertise onto existing youth programming which otherwise remains focused on building leadership, collaboration, community-building, or other skills. This year, the McCall MacBain Foundation was proud to support several organizations doing just that.
At 4-H Alberta, participants were reporting a desire for more skill-building and content related to the mental health struggles they were facing themselves or seeing among their peers. 4-H Alberta identified an opportunity to provide such content through two very popular provincial programs for high-school-aged youth that run through the spring and summer: Clubs Week, a four-day personal development program in a camp setting, and Senior Symposium, a weekend program that supports students in their transition out of high school. These programs are carefully designed to build particular skills, but also provided an opportunity for newly tailored mental health content. With support from the McCall MacBain Foundation, 4-H Alberta brought expertise from the mental health sector onboard in the design and delivery of these programs for the last two summers, which included integrating a mental health lens onto existing sessions, delivery of new interactive well-being content such as yoga, and specific dedicated speakers addressing mental health issues for rural youth in the province.
When Shad ran their summer STEAM programming for over 1000 high school students in 2022, everyone was excited to be back in person. However, team members quickly noticed differences in student behaviours compared to pre-pandemic. Students expressed increased anxiety, especially around social interactions. Support from the McCall MacBain Foundation allowed Shad to scale mental health first aid training across each of their 18 campuses for summer 2023. Team members felt more equipped to support and connect with youth thanks to the additional training.
BGC Canada, with a network of over 80 local agencies in communities across Canada, similarly noted the increased complexity of mental health needs among participants in their various after-school and recreational programs. This year, McCall MacBain Foundation funding helped pilot resilience training with staff and volunteers at regional clubs as well as increased staff support focused on youth mental health and well-being.
There is a wonderful opportunity for national and regional youth-development organizations to support the mental health and well-being of young people: they already know intimately the problems facing their participants and members, they have direct access to deliver services to youth through programs and events, and they know how to recruit young people and help link them into extensive networks of services. It has been a pleasure working with all our partners in this area in 2023.