Immigrant Youth Mental Health Awareness Roundtables

Organization Name: Canadian Pakistani Support Group Association
Community: Northern Alberta (north of the City of Red Deer)
Funding Request: $25,000
Start Date: 2023-01-01
End Date: 2023-12-31

The Cause

In Canada, suicide is the second leading cause of death for children and youth aged 10 to 19 years. Nearly one in five youth aged 15 to 17 report that their mental health was “fair” or “poor” (Statistics Canada, 2019). Immigrant Youth Mental Health Conversations is an awareness movement to empower immigrant, refugee, and newcomer youth, build knowledge and decrease stigma on mental health, mental illness, substance use, and addiction by organizing a series of roundtable conversations with immigrant associations, grassroots organizations, and youth clubs. The project will form collaborative relationships with 12 organizations, youth clubs, and engage over 200 youth over a period of 12 months. The immediate outcome of the project is to normalize the conversations related to mental health and encourage talking about in its families. Schools, and community. The goal of the project is to enable immigrant and refugee youth in Calgary to cope with daily stresses and strain and access support and services when needed. Additionally, the project will empower vulnerable youth to advocate for mental health problems and improve access to resource and support available in the community.

The project will be led by Youth Lifting Youth CPSG that is an immigrant youth-led group under the umbrella of CPSG/Maskan and has actively worked on mental health campaigns and events. The group has previously organized two Mental Health Expositions in past 2 years and have engaged over 20 youth organizations and impacted over 500 immigrant, refugee, and newcomer youth.

Who Will it Benefit?

The project will benefit and impact over 200 immigrant, refugee, and newcomer youth from diverse cultural communities. The project will benefit over 12 grassroots organizations and cultural associations to engage their communities and build awareness on mental health problems, mental health illnesses, substance use, and addiction.