Growth Mindfulness Project for Youth Celebrates 3rd Anniversary
Three years ago, the Mindfulness Research Center received an Ontario Trillium Foundation Grow grant for an integrated mindfulness trainer program to train 60 front-line workers from 15 youth services across the city of Toronto. I did.
Three years (and a pandemic) later, our Grow project has come to an end. This is one of the Centre’s largest and most successful community projects to date, and is aimed at Toronto’s frontline workers and underserved youth, who need mental health programs more than ever. We are extremely proud of the lasting impact we have had on our students. A key benefit of the program is that front-line employees are now equipped with the skills to deliver mindfulness programs to customers, in addition to the mental health support they already provide to customers. That’s it. This is one toolbox I would never have had the opportunity to explore if I hadn’t been part of the Grow program.
Watch the video below to see what participants had to say about their experience with the program.
Program overview
Frontline workers are trained to deliver two programs to youth: Mindfulness-Based Wellness (MBW) and Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBI).
Mindfulness-based wellness is a mindfulness practice aimed at supporting young people to grow (develop and thrive), resiliency (adapt and recover), openness (possibilities and perspective), and wellness (move toward health). This is a 7 week program based on The purpose is to provide psychoeducation, experiential learning, skills, and tools to facilitate these goals.
Mindfulness-based interventions is a seven-week program focused on helping adolescents cope with difficult mental and mood conditions, such as anxiety and depression. The goal of this program is for young people to develop skills and coping strategies that promote resilience and self-efficacy despite significant personal and systemic challenges that impact mood and cause anxiety. is to support the.
impact
“The fact that such a comprehensive and in-depth training program is being offered free of charge to youth workers is amazing. This is a great gift to the sector.” – People working on the front lines
In three years, the project not only met its goals, but exceeded them. Here are some of the numbers we’re proud of.
“Within the first week or two, I could see what I was learning naturally integrating into my life. The tools I learned had a huge impact on my relationship with anxiety.” – Youth participants
If you would like to learn more about the project, please view the final evaluation report here.
thank you!
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Ontario Trillium Foundation, social service agencies, frontline workers, and the youth who participated in our programs. This is the most comprehensive training of its kind, and the data obtained will help inform key future decisions to fund similar ‘train the trainer’ programs for youth mental health. It will be useful for convincing people.
