A coalition of Chestermere-based organizations and government sectors have teamed up to take a deeper look at youth safety and mental health in southeast Rocky View County after the suicide of a local youth last fall – and they’ve just been awarded a grant to undertake a comprehensive survey that digs deeper into these issues.
According to Patty Sproule, executive director of the Synergy Youth and Community Development Society – a local youth-leadership organization and coalition member – the team’s members had been talking about the welfare of youth in the community for a while, but last year’s tragedy spurred them to take a deeper look and to form an official partnership.
“The more we talked as a large group, the more we realized how much effect the pandemic has had already on our youth, on our entire community, [and] on ourselves quite frankly,” Sproule said. “And [we thought] it was going to get worse before it got better – and it has.”
Sproule added the COVID-19 pandemic and the isolation many people have felt as a result has especially impacted youth, as young people are not able to engage in positive social situations to help them cope with the difficulties of growing up.
“We’re definitely more and more worried the longer this goes on that our kids are going to come out of this pandemic – that the [existing] problem is going to be multiplied many times over,” she said.
The Canadian Mental Health Association’s (CMHA) Rural Mental Health Project grant awarded the Chestermere Community Coalition $30,000. The funds will go toward conducting a survey of local young people to better understand how the adult community can respond to acts of youth aggression and concerns over youth safety.
Sproule said the survey will take a comprehensive approach and the coalition is looking to employ survey-design experts and conduct consultations with local youth.
“We decided that we would not go ahead with the survey until we could actually do it justice, so we set about to apply for funding to hire a consultant to help us with it and basically mentor us through the process and make sure that we’re doing it as well as can possibly be done,” she said.
The coalition, which consists of representatives from the health, education, recreation, faith, social services, voluntary, business and government sectors, is seeking an additional $10,000 in funding to ensure the research is thorough.
According to a press release from Synergy, the survey will be administered to youth and youth-serving professionals in the community in order to “ascertain their concerns regarding personal safety, what they believe would make their community more secure and what support they need to become more resilient.”
While the coalition has submitted requests for proposals to survey design experts with a closing date of May 7, Sproule said they aim to administer the survey in the fall. The results will be shared with local decision-makers and members of the public, including recommendations for “actionable positive change” by the end of the year.
“We hope as a coalition to make a lasting difference with this project,” Sproule said. “We hope that we do this survey and that the community really hears the results and really takes them in and that they actually come together [to] take some ownership for trying to meet those recommendations that come out of the survey.”
“And [we hope] to make our community a better place for youth, a safer place for youth, a place where youth are more resilient and able to cope,” she added.
Anyone with questions regarding the survey or who wishes to donate to the project should call 403-212-0242 ext. 1.
