Young people across Canada currently have an opportunity to share their thoughts and concerns in the upcoming State of Youth in Canada report, a project being supported by Associate Professor of Child and Youth Studies Heather Ramey.

A few young people at Brock are also contributing to the report behind the scenes, thanks to a unique experiential learning project in Ramey’s Applied Research Project course, CHYS 4P95.

Ramey is the academic lead on the report. Since the fall, she has worked closely with the Students Commission of Canada as well as her own research team of both graduate students and undergraduate students in CHYS 4P95, which focuses on service learning, partnerships and deliverables.

The researchers are collecting data from a variety of sources, ranging from literature reviews to discussion sessions with young people across Canada.

Ramey’s students have been closely involved in these sessions, which are taking place until mid-March.

“We are still looking for groups of youth, ages 16 to 29, to participate in discussions about issues and topics that are important to them,” she says. “If people have classes or other groups that might be interested in participating, we hope they will reach out about scheduling a session soon.”

Emily Thai, a fourth-year Concurrent Education and CHYS 4P95 student, has documented several discussion sessions in addition to conducting literature reviews.

“Since we are collecting data from across Canada, it has been really interesting to see how issues vary between provinces; even within different cities, perspectives can differ significantly,” says Thai. “My favourite part of this project is hearing youth voices first-hand and connecting them to the literature we previously reviewed. It shows that it’s essential to integrate their perspectives into the decisions being made.”

Thai says she started her university career with one goal in mind — to become a primary/junior teacher. But her experiences of “being hands-on and feeling like a part of something meaningful” have sparked an unexpected interest in research, and she is now considering taking part in future research projects or even pursuing a master’s degree.

“I’ve been loving learning about mental health, since this is where I want to focus my research,” she says. “It’s fascinating to hear from individuals who believe there should be more services while also acknowledging the complications within the existing system. You get a variety of perspectives, which is exactly what I wanted to explore.”

Ramey says her student team has had some unusual opportunities with this project, especially in terms of gaining insight into how the government gathers information to inform policy.

“They’ve had training in systematic review procedures and some of the software used for looking through the literature, which you might expect, but with the added bonus of knowing exactly where the research is going to go,” says Ramey. “The students are going to be part of the report’s development from start to finish.”

Anyone interesting in scheduling a group discussion to inform the State of Youth in Canada report in the next few weeks can contact the session organizer.

Additionally, a survey for young people aged 16 to 29 run by the Federal Youth Secretariat will remain open for responses until Sunday, March 16.