When asked about a mental health issue that they most hoped to address, 17 adolescents unanimously chose youth unemployment. Unlike many generations before who fell into summer and part time jobs, paid and some unpaid work seems to be elusive for a lot of youth.

The 17 young people were students from west Mississauga schools within the Peel District School Board and Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board. Students applied to participate in Agenda Gap, a pilot program of the University of British Columbia’s Wellstream: The Canadian Centre for Innovation in Child & Youth Mental Health & Substance Use.  

Agenda Gap guides youth through a specially developed set of modules about policy development, human rights, advocacy, social determinants of health, positive mental health, and more. Participants receive honoraria for their time, a UBC certificate of completion, and volunteer hours.

To finish the program, the 2024 group developed an action plan to draw attention to one factor impacting youth mental health: access to employment.

Motivated to urge policymakers, educators and employers to give them a better chance to be self-sufficient, they mounted an employment readiness workshop for dozens of high school students and adult allies on Zoom and at MindShare Workspace in Erin Mills Town Centre. They also wanted to provide youth with instantly useful tips to find jobs, and build resilience when being ignored for postings or being told they didn’t have experience for entry-level work—insulting to those who’d missed out on experiential learning because of mandated social distancing and isolation during COVID.

The Empowering Young Leaders: Employment Success Strategies workshop featured several community leaders. Monica Lim, outreach specialist of the Youth For Entrepreneurship program of YMCA Greater Toronto and her colleague, Sabina Kafarov, shared tips on creating resumes to get past the applicant tracking system (ATS) software that sifts resumes. Omar Goodgame, youth engagement coordinator at EveryMind Mental Health Services, spoke about maintaining well-being during job searches, reminding participants that rejection, “is not personal to you as a job applicant.”

To participate virtually in the workshop, click on the video below. The workshop has been condensed to 53 minutes.

adolescent mental health Agenda Gap community action EveryMind PeelSchools Policy advocacy Wellstream YMCAGTA Youth employment strategy youth outreach Youth summer jobs Youth unemployment