were awarded a Sick Kids Foundation and Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator Grant<\/a> to leverage COMPASS data to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and school closures on youth mental health. That team formed an additional Youth Ambassador Committee to inform that study, comprising 10 secondary school students across four provinces.<\/p>\n\u201cThe COMPASS study was designed to be a learning system with the goal to advance youth health by informing more effective preventative practice and policy,\u201d says Patte. \u201cAs such, we\u2019ve always been big on making sure that we give back with our data and effectively communicate results not just to other researchers but by engaging schools, community partners, public health, community organizations, and policy makers.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the research team realized \u201cwe weren\u2019t reaching a key group who could benefit from results \u2014 youth themselves,\u201d she says, \u201cand who knows better how to engage youth than youth?\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year, Patte and her colleague Emily Belita, Assistant Professor at McMaster University, and COMPASS Project Manager Alexandra Butler worked with Brock\u2019s Lifespan Development Research Institute Knowledge Mobilization Officer Jayne Morrish to invite Brock Youth Engagement Committee members to form the COMPASS Youth Knowledge Mobilization Leaders committee. Sharma and Henderson were among those who responded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe youth were very excited about the COMPASS study,\u201d says Morrish. \u201cI think all of us saw that it was a really special moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe adults could make up a really beautiful infographic if we wanted to, but that might not be how and why youth want to engage with information and research knowledge,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s important to have youth at the table with an active voice and that\u2019s where knowledge mobilization gets fun, exciting and really accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the beginning of this year, the five-member youth committee has been meeting regularly to learn more about the COMPASS study\u2019s findings and strategize ways of sharing results that are engaging for youth.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery aspect of this youth-targeted knowledge mobilization strategy was developed by these youth leaders in a remarkably detailed and strategic manner, from content and design to effective delivery times,\u201d Patte explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the team started, we had so many topics to choose from,\u201d says Sharma. \u201cWe found really surprising aspects of mental health that we didn\u2019t know. Being a student myself, I had that experience of saying, my peers would really like to know about this because I would really like to know more about this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Individual committee members create posts on certain topics and bring that material to the entire committee for approval. After that, the content \u2014 which can consist of images, videos, stories, among others \u2014 is posted to the Instagram account.<\/p>\n
The materials explore how mental health is connected to, or influences, sleep, body image, physical activities, screen time and attitudes. The committee has also looked at how COVID-19 protocols have impacted youth mental health.<\/p>\n
Patte has noticed that the youth engagement work has re-energized the team and impacted the way she approaches all aspects of her research within COMPASS and other studies.<\/p>\n
\u201cEngaging youth, or the other populations of interest in particular studies, ensures that our research is impactful by better capturing and reflecting their experiences and needs,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Students Salony Sharma and Egan Henderson are doing something that\u2019s becoming increasingly vital in research: putting findings into the hands of those who could use the information the most.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":73648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,36,7,188,55,1,4,5],"tags":[2194,703,7311,10625,10627,7488,5505,7152,5218,7310,10052,10628,926,10626,118,2150],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73647"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73647"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73672,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73647\/revisions\/73672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}