The McCreary Centre Society out of Vancouver held a youth health workshop at the Rossland Youth Action Network space on Tuesday.
During the workshop Hannah Neumayer, community research coordinator, and Tanyss Knowles, facilitator, shared the results of the BC Adolescent Health Survey (AHS) with youth aged 12 to 19. They also shared specific statistics from the Kootenay Boundary region.
After being presented with the results, the kids had a chance to respond to what they'd heard through an art project. Local artist Kristen Renn helped participants create a number of posters, including one featuring pandas sharing some of the statistics from the survey.
After finishing their posters, participants turned their attention to a major health project, which they will be undertaking over the next few months under the direction of YAN and with funding from the McCreary Centre.
The program the project falls under is called Next Steps, and in the past the program has also been carried out with specific youth groups, like Aboriginal youth, youth who were homeless and street involved, and youth with mental health challenges.
“There's been youth that have chose to do things like canoe trips with elders to connect to culture, and to get outdoors. There's been youth that have done a scavenger hunt around their community in terms of accessing and finding health resources,” said Neumayer. “There's been an amazing-race-style one in the community where adults and youth were in teams racing around the whole community, also related to accessing services.”
Asked what about the survey stood out, one girl said, “The one about alcohol... Not as many kids drink alcohol as I thought. Like it seems it like everyone does it.”
“Yeah,” another girl agreed, “it's kind of nice to hear that there's a smaller population for people who do it.”
Later in the evening, Neumayer and Knowles presented the results of the survey to parents and other adults at the YAN space.
This is the fifth AHS the McCreary Centre Society has done.