The mission of the Ontario Public Health Association is to provide leadership on issues affecting the public’s health and to strengt hen the impact of pe ople who are active in public and community health throughout Onta rio. To that end it supports local public health departments in responding to the Ontario Public Health Standards developed by the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (Ontario Publ ic Health Standards, 2008).
The Youth Engagement Project is expected to be one such support. Funded by Health Canada’s Drug Strategy Community Initiati ves Fund in 2009, the project will train and provide resources for public health professiona ls in six pilot projec ts occurring in public health units across the province. Formative, process and outcome evaluation activities will take place as part of an overall evaluation strategy developed with an external consultant. Expected outcomes include an enhancement of youth engagement and other protective factors associated with resiliency for youth ages 11-14. A long-term goal is the reduction in illicit drug use or other risk-taking behaviour.
It is expected that the pilot projects will form youth groups led by people in the community, (teacher, parent, youth worker, st udent or public health staff). Youth will problem-solve about ways to enhance thei r protective factor and solutions will be developed looking at opportuni ties within their co mmunity to support youth engagement in the school, in volunteerism or recreation. This process follows on the learnings of the Smoke-Free Ontario Strategy which many public health units engaged in recently.
This research report was commissioned to provide current and re levant research and literature on best and promisi ng practices that could guide the project and the resources.
Over a period of three months and in colla boration with the planning team from OPHA and the partners, the author searched out re levant literature from peer-reviewed journals, and grey literature and was directed by key informants about literature and programs which fit the inclusion criteria. A synopsis of this literature and analysis and several recommendations for OPHA’s pilot project we re presented and this report developed. The results of this search were limited by time and budget which reduced access to all information that had been formally studied and published.
The literature review focused on four key ar eas – resiliency and pr otective factors, youth engagement, the settings approach for hea lth promotion, and the prevention of illicit drug use plus the relevance of each of these with the target age group, with each other and with the inclusion criteri a identified by the partners.