What’s Kicking at Kickstand
Photo Credit, Chan Rin | Graphic Design, Alexandra San Diego
Author: Alex San Diego
In 2020, as “AB-IYSI” (Alberta Integrated Youth Services Initiative), we began to reach out to young people & families/caregivers in Alberta to hear what they needed from mental health & wellness services. Using what we heard, most of the year was spent building both a brand that would resonate with those who need it most and our Youth & Family Engagement Framework. Thus, the Kickstand brand was born & launched into the world alongside our What We Heard Report, youth-and-family co-created Kickstand website, & community stories of need for system transformation.
While striding towards opening our virtual clinic, we worked on e-mental health interventions with our network. First launched was our health literacy content library – thirty webpages including topics such as Relationships, Mental Health 101, & Getting Into College or University – written for young people, by young people.
We also launched MoreGoodDays – a version of the Text4Hope program revamped by having young people write daily text messages. Results from Text4Hope saw users reporting an overall reduction of stress, anxiety & depression – and we hope for similar results for MoreGoodDays. However, the message creation process itself was designed to be beneficial to the 40+ participants due to its high level of youth engagement. Research shows that engaging young people to help create solutions for issues that impact them promotes resiliency & connectedness and has been shown to reduce risk for suicidal thoughts & behaviors in youth.
“I was going through a hard time when I first came into contact with the program. While writing the messages, I felt excited and pumped up to write more positive messages to youth.”
With the opening of Kickstand Connect coming soon, we find ourselves busy embedding our Youth Engagement principles at the core of everything we do. For example, our promotional MoreGoodDays photoshoot featuring the message writers themselves or our Youth Action Council representing Kickstand at local & national conferences. Most recently, we hosted two Partnership Engagement sessions so that our virtual clinic partners could directly consult our youth network before creating assets for Kickstand Connect.
We are thrilled about the meaningful relationships we’ve made with young people, families, caregivers, service providers, & partner organizations in the last two years. These collaborations are the foundation of Kickstand & will help us stand strong as we open the doors to Kickstand Connect this year.