Youth4Health

Over the past year, researchers at ELLICSR became involved with a new, wide-reaching navigation project called Youth4Health which trains youth from newly immigrant families to serve as bridges between their households and their wider communities.  The Youth Health Navigators role is to assist others by empowering under-served populations to identify and better access quality health services. They do this by creating connections within the community and helping people become more aware of the challenges they face and the opportunities for change. Youth4Health is an initiative of two University of Toronto social innovation research groups; People, Health Equity, and Innovation (PHI) and the Youth Voices Research Group (YVRG), and led by Dr. Alejandro (Alex) Jadad (Principal Investigator) and Dr. Cameron Norman (Co-Investigator) of University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Other collaborators include Jackie Bender, Healther Hardie, Margo Kennedy, Dhara Moddel, Rinat Nissim, Janet Papadakos, and Michelle Snow.

At ELLICSR, researchers have been able to develop and implement a sustainable model of the youth health navigator at Princess Margaret Hospital based on lessons learned from the Youth4Health collaboration.  This cancer navigator role was successfully piloted in the hospital utilizing the pool of highly trained “Healing Beyond the Body” (HBB) volunteers.  Together with the PMH HBB Program and PMH Volunteer Resources, their role was to develop the cancer navigation curriculum, toolkit and supporting infrastructure. ELLICSR is currently working with researchers from the Department of Psychosocial Oncology to evaluate this role in preparation for the upcoming wide-scale rollout of the navigation program. 

Visit the Youth4Health website for more information