Youth, Families, Growth & Development

BAC Youth Mental Health Co-Design Project

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Stream Beyond Integration Program Youth, Families, Growth & Development

Project BAC Youth Mental Health Co-Design Project

Project Direction

Project Goals

Strategic priorities guiding this project’s implementation, learning, and community impact.

Goal 1

Understand young people's lived Experiences to better support them

To create a safe space where Black youth can openly share their experiences with mental health, belonging, access to services, and the pressures they face in school, home, and community environments.

Goal 2

Ensure that we Identify Barriers to Mental Health Support for youth and address them

To surface the systemic, cultural, logistical, and economic barriers that prevent Black youth from accessing mental-health services, including stigma, affordability, transportation, lack of representation, and distrust of institutions.

Goal 3

Work with young people to create an environment that is comfortable and fully designed/by them

To work directly with youth to design practical, culturally grounded, and community-driven solutions that reflect their priorities, not pre-determined program ideas.

Goal 4

Promote youth voices at all levels to strengthen their voices & participation

To build youth confidence, leadership, and decision-making power by ensuring their voices shape program design, school supports, community services, and future OII wellness initiatives.

Goal 5

Work with youth to Build Community-Centred Recommendations

To produce actionable recommendations for schools, mental-health providers, families, and community partners that reflect youth-identified needs and solutions.

Goal 6

Ensure young people sustain structures through modeled engagement

To establish a long-term framework that continues beyond the workshops — ensuring Black youth can guide future programming, policy advocacy, and service improvements in Etobicoke, Mississauga, and Brampton.

Evidence from the Field

Recent activities.

Approved activity briefs and implementation evidence connected to this project.

Youth Mental Health Co-Design Session 1 Report

The August 19, 2025 session was delivered through an integrated education-dialogue-co-design model. It represented a clinically relevant, community-anchored breakthrough in youth engagement.…

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