Introduction

Annual Symposium, January 25-27, 2021: It’s all about Context

How can the Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund (MHP-IF), and each of the twenty projects within it, make the biggest difference in the short- and long-term? How can we individually and collectively contribute to child and youth mental health promotion in Canada that is evidence-informed, sensitive to cultures and contexts, equitable and sustainable? Wise choices about what to do, with whom, when and how are those that find the best ‘fit’ between activities and context. But what is “context”? Is it COVID-19? Absolutely. Is it advances with research? Yes. Is it the worldview that guides your work? Yes. Is it current policies, practices, and partnerships? Yes! Context is all circumstances within which ideas, actions, events, and fields can be fully understood and influenced.

The KDE Hub will host the first annual symposium with and for the MHP-IF community January 25-27, 2021 – The Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund in Context: People, Positioning, Pandemic, Potential. The symposium will be a short, yet concentrated window of time during which those involved in the MHP-IF will be invited to explore relevant and varied contexts influencing their work, and contexts they can influence. Speakers, discussants and guests from beyond the MHP-IF will enrich the exploration and learning.

Participants in the 2021 MHP-IF symposium, will:

  1. Become more familiar with people and places involved in the MHP-IF (people)
  2. Gain a deeper understanding of the niche of the MHP-IF, with its emphasis on upstream approaches, promoting health equity and knowledge development & exchange (positioning)
  3. Explore the influence of the pandemic on the MHP-IF and ways to inform ongoing adaptations (pandemic)
  4. Expand appreciation for the value of the MHP-IF in the broader context of child and youth mental health promotion in Canada and internationally (potential)

If you are not  directly involved in the MHP-IF,  share the program’s interests in child and youth mental health promotion, and want to attend all or part of the symposium, please reach out to us. Please know there is a place for you in this community, and we will do our best to ensure that place is welcoming, inclusive and safe. This intention is consistent with the goals of the MHP-IF, and the motto of the Hub’s home, Renison University College, One Sky Over All.