About the Rural Ottawa Youth Mental Health Collective
What is the Rural Ottawa Youth Mental Health Collective?
The ROYMH Collective is a team of 13 partners invested in the mental wellbeing of rural Ottawa youth. Established in 2018, the Collective came together because we noticed that youth in rural Ottawa were not feeling supported with their mental health. The Collective set out to establish how many rural Ottawa youth were feeling supported and what types of programs and services could be offered to help them feel more supported with their mental health.
Our Intended Impact statement is: By 2024, 80% of rural Ottawa youth (ages 12-24) will feel they are getting the mental health support they need or know where to go for help if and when they need to access support.
Rural Ottawa Youth Mental Health Collective Members
Key Partners:
Catherine Potter, Saint-Paul University Ph.D Candidate
ROYMHC Youth Advisory Committee
The ROYMH Collective is a team of 13 partners invested in the mental wellbeing of rural Ottawa youth. Established in 2018, the Collective came together because we noticed that youth in rural Ottawa were not feeling supported with their mental health. The Collective set out to establish how many rural Ottawa youth were feeling supported and what types of programs and services could be offered to help them feel more supported with their mental health.
Our Intended Impact statement is: By 2024, 80% of rural Ottawa youth (ages 12-24) will feel they are getting the mental health support they need or know where to go for help if and when they need to access support.
Rural Ottawa Youth Mental Health Collective Members
- Nepean, Rideau, Osgoode Community Resource Centre (NROCRC); backbone organization
- Osgoode Youth Association (O-YA); founding organization
- Youth of Manotick Association (YOMA)
- Youth Net; CHEO
- Ottawa Child & Youth Initiative (OCYI)
- Ottawa Police Service (OPS)
- Ottawa Public Health (OPH)
- Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre (WOCRC)
- Eastern Ottawa Community Resource Centre (EOCRC)
- South Nepean Satellite Community Health Centre (SNCHC)
- Orleans-Cumberland Community Resource Centre (OCCRC)
- Parents Lifeline of Eastern Ontario (PLEO)
- Ottawa West Four Rivers Ontario Health Team
Key Partners:
Catherine Potter, Saint-Paul University Ph.D Candidate
ROYMHC Youth Advisory Committee
History of Rural Ottawa Youth Mental Health Collective
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2018
- Conversation Grant funding received from Innoweave Youth CI to support youth-focused, youth-led and youth-serving groups across Ontario get conversations started that can help identify a common issue that needs to be addressed and / or identify who needs to be involved in collective effort to improve the conditions of young people in our community (February 2018).
- Confirmed that youth mental health is the most pertinent issue surrounding young people in rural Ottawa.
- Established the ROYMHC to address the issue of rural youth mental health.
- Formed a Youth Advisory Committee of youth with lived experience of accessing mental health supports in rural Ottawa.
- Exploration Grant and Development Coaching funding received from Innoweave Youth CI to clearly define a specific intended impact statement, engage the community in further research and mapping of issue area (Community Needs Assessment / Stakeholder Engagement / Literature Review), develop a draft Theory of Change and engage youth with lived experience (November 2018).
2019
- Conduct a comprehensive Community Needs Assessment to gauge the state of youth mental health in rural Ottawa (survey, one-on-one interviews, focus groups, literature review, stakeholder engagement)
- Create Community Needs Assessment Report.
2020
- Planning Coaching Support funding received from Innoweave Youth CI to engage the community in further research and mapping of issue area, engage young people in meaningful ways, finalize Theory of Change and Intended Impact Statement, select and test areas of Theory of Change to be pressure tested, finalize plan for measurement across the Theory of Change for the collaborative, finalize governance elements of the collaborative, develop a launch plan and demonstrate shared ownership and maintain accountability of group members in managing, tracking and resourcing the collective impact initiative (March 2020).
2021
- Hire an Evaluation Coordinator (Emily Dozois) with funding from Innoweave Youth CI to provide strategic evaluation support to Rural Ottawa Youth Mental Health Collective in support of Rural Ottawa Mental Health CI’s developmental evaluation (February 2021).
- Interviewed on the Impact Conversations Podcast (listen to it here: https://bit.ly/2RcQldz)
- Conduct a survey of rural Ottawa youth to establish a baseline for how many rural Ottawa youth are currently feeling supported with their mental health, gauge how COVID-19 has affected their mental health and learn what programs, activities and services would help them feel more supported with their mental health (February 2021).
- Present results of rural Ottawa Youth MH Survey to stakeholders (March / April 2021).
- Finalize Theory of Change and Intended Impact Statement (March 2021)
- Create ROYMHC's Terms of Reference and establish the ROYMHC's Governance Structure
- Launch Grant funding approved for July – December 2021
2022
- Applied for and successfully received the final phase of LaidLaw Foundation's Youth CI project funds: Execution Phase (May 2022). This fund is for 12-18 months of putting the Theory of Change (below) into action.
- Revisited and strengthened our ROYMHC Governance Structure.
- Hired a full-time Program Manager (August 2022).
- Recruited Eastern Ottawa Community Resource Centre (EOCRC) to join our Collective to ensure stronger eastern representation.
- Partnered with researchers from Saint-Paul University (Dr Laura Armstrong and Catherine Potter) to undertake a research component.
2023
- Joined the Ottawa West Four Rivers Ontario Health Team's (OWFR OHT) Mental Health, Addictions and Substance Use Health (MHASUH) Action Team.
- Conducted a Rural Ottawa Youth Mental Health Check-In 2023 survey to check-in on rural youth mental health (French version here)
- Hosted a Rural Mentors of Youth 1-day Training Summit (April 1) which trained 37 mentors of rural youth in SafeTalk, Motivational Interviewing and How to Help a Friend, supported by Crime Prevention Ottawa.
- Successfully received multi-year ($56,828.78 over 3 years) funding from Ottawa Community Foundation for Support Education: Training Summits and Peer Connection. This will enable the ROYMHC to do annual trainings for mentors of rural youth across rural Ottawa.
- Successfully received a Community Building Grants from the Agricultural and Rural Affairs Committee of the City of Ottawa for $8776.00. This grant will enable a summer student to do rural outreach between July-October 2023.
| Check out our 5-year project wrap up! |
| Click here to read the 2019 Osgoode Ward Community Needs Assessment |