Intervention implementation
Agenda Gap centers youth expertise and prepares youth collaborators for meaningful policy engagement (i.e., multi-level and multi-sectoral action and advocacy for systems change) to promote mental health of individuals, families, communities, and society. In October 2020, Agenda Gap launched in its first two intervention sites in British Columbia, followed by an additional intervention site in Alberta in October 2021. Forthcoming sites in the provinces of Ontario and Nova Scotia are set to launch in 2023 as part of Phase 2 activities. To date, Agenda Gap has been delivered entirely online due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health protections. The intervention consists of: (1) a youth mental health promotion and policy advocacy “curriculum” delivered through a developmental relationship building process, (2) facilitator and ally (community, policy and other decision maker) capacity-generating activities, and (3) strategic knowledge mobilization.Youth collaborators (aged 15–24 years) are recruited through partner organization networks, including schools, community organizations and health services, with an emphasis on engaging youth who experience intersecting health and social inequities (e.g., have accessed mental health services, live in poverty, are in care of the child welfare system, or who are racialized, Indigenous and/or LGBTQ2+). Interested youth are interviewed to explore interest and to curate cohorts of 5–15 youth with shared experiences or passions. Cohorts are then engaged 1) Collectively identify factors in their community that impact youth mental health 2) Develop strategies and action plans to effect relevant policy development/change, including through knowledge mobilization outputs.3) Engage with relevant parties, including policymakers, in collaborative policymaking processes to promote youth mental health.In this way, Agenda Gap is designed to contribute to impacts across the four socioecological domains. Youth participants benefit directly through the development of supportive relationships and sense of connectedness, as well as new skills and knowledge about the links between mental health and policy (individual level). Moreover, policy and other adult allies are engaged and leveraged through collaborative policy-making processes with youth (individual and community levels). Together, this serves to advance mental health promotion and equity for – and with – youth and others living in communities where the policy advocacy and intervention is targeted (family, community and societal levels) (