The KDE Hub Annual Symposium is an opportunity for federal programs supported by the Hub and a growing community with interests in mental health promotion to connect and learn from each other. These gatherings:
- Create supportive connections across projects supported by the KDE Hub
- Increase knowledge and build skills in selective areas that are relevant to the needs of projects and others with shared interests
- Consider meaningful and realistic knowledge development priorities within and across projects supported by the KDE Hub
- Inspire a shared vision for how funded projects supported by the Hub and related communities can contribute to child and youth mental health promotion in Canada
Annual Symposium 2021
The Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund in Context: People, Positioning, Pandemic, Potential
The KDE Hub hosted the first annual symposium January 25-27, 2021. This symposium was a short, yet concentrated window of time during which those involved in the MHP-IF were invited to explore relevant and varied contexts influencing their work, and contexts they can influence. Speakers, discussants and guests from beyond the MHP-IF enriched the exploration and learning.
Participants explored:
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- people and places of the Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund (MHP-IF),
- positioning of the program on international through local levels,
- influence of the pandemic, and
- the potential to advance child and youth mental health promotion in Canada.
Pre-event Program
View the full pre-event program for the 2023 Annual Symposium.
Opening Session: #ThisIsMHP
This session extended a warm welcome to all, gave orientation to the symposium, and provided a first opportunity to interact directly with the projects and people of the Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund (MHP-IF). The focus of this session was…
Keynote: Helping Mental Health Promotion flourish in Canada
The focus of the second day of the symposium was on actions for helping mental health promotion flourish. A pre-recorded presentation features two leading keynote speakers – Drs. Carol Hopkins and Kwame McKenzie– who offer perspective, ideas, and inspiration on…
Panel and participant dialogue on helping Mental Health Promotion flourish in Canada
Primed with the pre-recorded presentations and participant questions submitted in advance, this live session was an opportunity for dialogue. Keynote speakers were joined by three additional panelists – all leading thinkers and actors and all with unique vantage points on…
Getting practical: Actions for helping Mental Health Promotion flourish in Canada
This session was about getting practical with actions that are most needed to help mental health promotion flourish in Canada. Actions considered and built on keynote, panel, and participant perspectives. All session participants were invited to share their initial ideas…
Options for helping participants flourish
Actions most needed to help mental health promotion flourish include actions to help ourselves flourish. This session reinforced the importance of self-care and offered self-care options for participants to try, including some that could be brought into participants’ own settings.…
Emerging new knowledge from the Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund (phase 1)
Day 3 of the symposium was focused on knowledge for helping mental health promotion flourish. The first session of the day was a written summary of emerging knowledge from Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund (MHP-IF) projects during Phase 1. The…
Animating emerging findings from the MHP-IF through project stories
This session brought to life findings shared in a written summary of emerging knowledge from Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund (MHP-IF) projects during Phase 1. Two rounds of breakout room discussions led by project team members focused on a selection…
Panel and participant dialogue on making best use of the emerging knowledge and shaping future knowledge development activities
With insights from MHP-IF projects on how they adapted to evolving pandemic conditions and other experiences during Phase 1, this panel extended the knowledge mobilization story. What do we mean by ‘high quality evidence’? How can we approach knowledge mobilization…
Closing celebration: Consolidate the present, reflect on the past, anticipate the future
The closing session reflected on the forces that brought the 2022 symposium community together and provided perspective on the growth of the mental health promotion community and on critical success factors for building influence and impact in this field. Perspectives…
Opening Session
The opening session welcomed participants to the Annual Symposium and focused on the people and places of the Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund (MHP-IF). Words of welcome were offered on behalf of the KDE Hub as the symposium host; the…
Child and Youth Mental Health Promotion in an International Context
One of the hallmarks of the Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund (MHP-IF) is a focus on upstream determinants of mental health for children and youth: building protective factors and reducing risk factors at the individual, community, and structural levels. Yet…
Child and Youth Mental Health Promotion in the Canadian Context
How are we doing in Canada at improving the underlying determinants of positive mental health for children and youth? How can the MHP-IF contribute to advancing mental health promotion? This session considered the Canadian context in relation to the international…
Child and Youth Mental Health Promotion in Your Context
Preceded by sessions that explored mental health promotion within the international and national contexts, this interactive session used the iceberg systems model to help symposium participants explore the contexts, landscapes, and systems in which they work. The tip of the…
The Pandemic Context
The COVID-19 pandemic context began early in 2020 and continues to evolve. Pivots, adaptations, re-thinking, and uncertainty are new norms. How are these norms playing out in the field of child and youth mental health promotion? Who is impacted and…
Discussing Considerations for Sustainability and Scale Up
Next phases of the MHP-IF and the desired future for many projects is scale up. But how do we get there? How do we ensure that interventions are scalable and that the groundwork for sustaining and scaling promising approaches is…
Context-Sensitive Approaches to Sustaining and Scaling Up Social Innovations and Impact
This session provided a pre-recorded primer on scaling up social innovations and impact. The presentation explored how to create conditions for success by taking short-term actions in the context of long-term plans. It highlighted that considering possible futures needs to…
Context-Sensitive Planning for the Short-Term: Hub Supports
The MHP-IF is approaching the final year of phase 1. In this session, the Hub provided an opportunity for all participants to shape Hub priorities for the next year. A short presentation from the Hub highlighted selective findings from a…
Closing Celebration
Many good journeys are circular. The closing session returned to where we started, with the people and places of the Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund (MHP-IF), and with our intentions to explore these and other contexts that influence and are…