Wisdom2Action Montreal

Montreal Event Centre Lajeunesse November 27th, 2014

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What is Wisdom2Action?

The CYCC Network is a knowledge mobilization network that was created to improve mental health and well-being for vulnerable and at-risk children and youth in Canada. It promotes the use of research, best and promising pracices, and local knowledge in mental health programming for children and youth in challenging contexts.

Purpose

Our Wisdom2Action outreach events bring together members of the local community who are passionate about improving the mental health and well-being of young people. They are designed to help participants connext, share knowledge, and promote promising practices. As the final W2A event for 2014, Wisdom2Action Montreal served as a culmination of W2A events across Canada.

Product

The Wisdom2Action process is guided by a national committee that includes Network members from across Canada. CYCC Network staff then connect with Network members in each community to develop a local planning team that helps guide the planning process – identifying the local need and rationale for an event like Wisdom2Action, identifying participants to be invited, and providing advice on logistics.

Wisdom to Action: Sharing stories of best practice, and discovering ways to better share what we know so we can support young people better.

 Hear stories from local promising practices related to the CYCC Network mandate  Understand barriers to putting new programming into action  Develop action plans and pledges to:

· document best practices

· share best practices, and

· learn from others about best practices.

Principles

Network Objectives

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Support goals of CYCC Network (best practices, interdisciplinary, three pillars)

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Promote knowledge and understanding about CYCC Network

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Ensure diverse engagement (youth to funders to decision makers)

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Expand Network community dialogue on core themes with a focus on best practise

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Multi sectoral (including private sector and public sector)

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Deepen local connections amongst partners

Meetings should model and provide an experience of best practice (youth engagement, technology)

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Co-created locally

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Youth engagement

3 In Montreal, the CYCC Network and W2A Montreal Planning Team worked closely with percolab to plan the event. Percolab supports organizations in developing socially innovative projects and strategies. (For more information please visit www.percolab.com) Four Anglophone and Francophone youth representing various youth-serving organizations in Montreal were recruited to participate in the planning and facilitation of the event. The Planning Committee met periodically for three months prior to the event, culminating with a Planning Day in Montreal on November 26th.

This report outlines the agenda of the day, explains the processes used, and highlights the themes that emerged from the many stories shared and conversations that happened.

Approach: Hosting, Harvesting and Experimenting Participatory methods and tools from the Art of Hosting and Harvesting Meaningful Conversations created a framework for the day with many opportunities for rich conversations.

Art of Hosting is a highly effective approach of harnessing the collective wisdom and self-organizing capacity of groups of any size. Based on the assumption that people give their energy and lend their resources to what matters to them, the Art of Hosintg blends a suite of powerful conversational processes to invite people to step in and take charge of the challenges facing them. (Learn more at www.artofhosting.org) “Harvesting” refers to making visible what has occurred at the event: The fruits of the conversations. This is the practice of bringing wisdom into action. Our approach to harvesting this gathering was based on experimenting with the following question: How do we activate the wisdom that is present in the room and share it with a wider network?

The harvesting tools which were employed included video, photos, conversation hosting templates, social media, and graphic recording.

Purpose and Agenda The purpose of this event was to explore how to bring wisdom to action to better support youth in challenging contexts. Fifty people gathered for this day of networking, offering stories of practices, asking questions, and sharing learnings.

The day began with a creative registration activity, followed

by Open Circle introductions and a mapping activity exploring Francophone and Anglophone youth services in Montreal. The remainder of the day was spent in the Open Space Technology process which created time and space for people to engage deeply and creatively around issues of concern to them. A speakers’ corner was set up where participants provided video interviews throughout the day describing their experience of Wisdom2Action.

Creative Registration As participants arrived, they were greeted with an unconventional registration experience. Each person had their photo taken with an instant camera. They put this photo on a “Profile Card” where they answered the following questions: What do you hope to learn? What do you hope to share? These “profiles” were posted on the wall so all participants could better connect with one another.

This harvesting tool immediately highlighted the richness and diversity of people in the room, helped everyone approach the day in a playful manner and brought focus to participants’ own learning objectives and offerings. The “profile wall” acted as a visual networking tool throughout the day.

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Opening Circle The event began with everyone sitting in a circle. Each person introduced themselves and provided one word describing their hopes or expectations for the day.

Some of the words which were shared included the following:

c i g a M MotivCreative ated

d n ive o e i t t c ci nne vat

Ex

Co

o n n I

Mapping of Youth Services in Montreal The first activity of the day was a mapping activity which encouraged participants to think about Francophone and Anglophone youth services in Montreal and how they intersect.

Participants were asked to list three youth-serving organizations in Montreal on post-it notes and place them on the wall to create a visual “mapping” of services. Francophone organizations were written on yellow post-its, Anglophone organizations on green post-its, and Allophone (multi-lingual) organizations on red post-its. Participants were encouraged to add more names to the wall throughout the day. Once the wall was completed, it served as a visual representation of participants’ awareness of youth service organizations in Montreal; it also served as a resource, as participants could refer to it to learn about organizations they had not previously heard of.

The Anglophone, Francophone and Allophone (multi-lingual) organizations which were named during this activity are listed below:

Anglophone:

Francophone:

Batshaw Youth and Family Services Montreal Children’s Hospital Odawa Native Friendship Centre Wabano Center for Aboriginal Health Where the Creek Runs Clearer Family Wellness Centre Avataq Cultural Center Shawbridge Kahnawake Shakottia’Takehnhas community services Chabad Lifeline Pavilion Foster Network Cote des Neiges Black Community Association Jewish General Hospital MUHC Children’s Hospital Head and Hands Elizabeth House First People’s House West Island Women’s Centre (WIWC) Native Friendship Centre of Montreal (NFCM) Tyndale St. George Desta On Our Own Transitional Housing

Centres de Pédiatries Sociales (Fondation Dr. Julien) Café-Jeunesse Montréal-Nord Assistance D’Enfants en Difficulté (AED) Université de Sherbrooke Maison André Gratton Maison de la Famille (OCF) Boscoville Hopital Ste-Justine Avenir d’Enfants Observatoire en Maltraitance Centre Jeunesse du Laval GRIS Montréal Centre Jeunesse Montréal et Quebec – Institut Universitaire Forum Jeunesse de l’Ile de Montréal Unipsed Ordre des psyhcoéducateurs et psychoéducatrices du Québec (OPPQ) Fondation Chagnon Centre de Transert pour la réussite éducative CLIPP (Centre de Liaison sur L’Intervention et le Prévention Pscychosociales) Fondation du Dr. Julien/Centre

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Francophone Con't Multi-Ressources de Lachine Maison des Enfants Coup-de-Pouce Jeunesse Montréal-Nord Dans la Rue Encyclopedia pour le Développment du jeune enfant Association Québecoise pour la Santé Mentale des Nourrissons Mères Avec Pouvoir (MAP)

Allophone: Leave Out Violence (LOVE) Centre D’Emploi Jeunesse UNICEF TCRI Table de Concertation Refugiés et Immigrants Batshaw Agence Ometz YMCA Jeunesse J’Ecoute - Kids Help Phone Project 10 for LGBTQ Youth Portage Rising Sun Daycare Quebec Community Groups Network Carrefour Jeunesse Emploi de l’Ouest de L’Ile (CJE) Action Jeunesse Ouest De L’Ile (AJOI) Canadian Red Cross Portugal

Conseil Recherche en Sciences Humaines Exeko CARE/ Grands Frères et Grandes Soeures de Montréal Head and Hands Yellow Door Solid Rock Projet Autochtones Quebec (Shelter for Indigenous People) PAQ Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal Maison Mosaik Centre D’Expertise Marie-Vincent Réseau des Bibliotheques de Montreal Sun Youth Hippy Quebec CPE Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale Douglas (IUSMD) Montreal Children’s Hospital

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Storytelling Harvest: Listening with Lenses The Storytelling Harvest provides a simple and accessible way for participants to share their lived experience. Presenters speak from a first-person perspective, telling their own story.

Participants listen to each story from a specific perspective with the help of a randomly assigned “lens.” The lenses enable participants to “self-harvest” their thinking by providing a focus point with which they want to interact.

Lenses:

After the stories have been shared, participants move to “harvest stations” to write the key points and questions related to their particular lens. They then re-convene as a group to share their consolidated findings.

2. Partenaires Improbables et Collaborations Intéressantes/ Unlikely Partners and Interesting Collaborations

During this activity, presenters focused on Knowledge Mobilization; speakers from a variety of organizations discussed different aspects of KMb and how it relates to their work. Participants engaged in discussion with the speakers after each presentation and then moved into groups according to each “lens” which they had been assigned. Some highlights from each group’s discussion of their lens are provided below:

Focus Question: What am I learning about knowledge mobilization?

1. Solutions, Possibilités, Opportunités et Prochaines Pas/ Solutions, Possibilities, Opportunities and Next Steps Empowerment, collaboration, accessibility

The creation of networks helps to combat isolation and counters hierarchical relationships.

Practitioners and researchers can connect through collaborative opportunities such as W2A.

3. Creativité et Expression/ Creativity and Expression The divide between research and practice means we don’t really understand the realities of our youth and we therefore don’t share our knowledge effectively.

People don’t always connect with a theory; it is therefore important to find different ways to communicate and adapt communication style depending on your audience.

Create flexible toolkits that allow people and organizations to use them in a way which will work for them.

77 4. La Magie/ Magic Creation of multilateral relationships where everyone is at the table and all voices are heard.

5. Evaluation: Comment Evaluer? And prove that what you do works?

There is a need for a Knowledge Mobilization community.

Intangibles which are difficult to evaluate include: Ensuring stakeholder engagement and capturing the nuances of the program’s impact upon participants.

Evaluation is essential for ensuring the longevity of programs.

6. Vision du Monde et Changement de Paradigme/ Worldview and Paradigm Shift Different priorities among stakeholders and fear of change.

7. La Voix et l’Engagement des Jeunes/ Youth Voice and Engagement Empowering youth to take control of their identity, to find their own sense of community, and to be actively involved in decision-making and research are critical to youth development, as well as the improvement of youth services.

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World Café At the beginning of the afternoon, the participants took part in a World Café. World Café is a process used to foster interaction and dialogue with groups of all sizes. This tool is particularly effective in surfacing the collective wisdom of large groups of diverse people.

World Café operates on the following principles: Create hospitable space/ Explore questions that matter/ Encourage each person’s contribution/ Connect diverse people and ideas/ Listen together for patterns, insights and deeper questions/ Make collective knowledge visible The following etiquette is promoted during World Café: Focus on what matters/ Listen to understand/ Contibute your thinking/ Speak your mind and heart/ Link and connect ideas/ Listen together for themes, insights and deeper questions/ Play, doodle, draw; have fun!

Each table participated in three rounds of World Café; below are some of the ideas brought forward from each table from each round:

Question 1: What are you noticing in your work with children and youth in Montreal?

-Importance of knowing about other services and not duplicating them.

-Security and trust within the community -Funding support to independent students for CEGEP or vocational studies helps bridge the gap for marginalized youth.

-Focus on health and wellness.

-Accessibility of resources, information, support; sharing information, building connections.

-Empowerment

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Question 2: What are the opportunities we have now?

-Importance of visibility and being accessible (to meet clients where they are).

-Valorisation! Sentiment d’appartenance. Estime de soi.

-Responsabilité/Empowerment.

-Help youth to feel like themselves; give them a voice. Bring out their uniqueness. Empowerment.

-Youth Empowerment: Youth’s words and opinions have worth in the decision-making process.

-Funding -Networking opportunities -Making public services more accessible and youth friendly.

Question 3: What are the next steps to be taken?

-Concertation et collaboration.

-Continue to have untraditional events where we can have conversations like these.

-Prendre toutes les mesures pour vaincre la pauvreté (joining forces against poverty).

-Creating, sharing, identifying safe spaces -More support for youth in transition to adulthood; Soutien transtision vie adulte.

-Empower parents -Encourager à sortir de sa zone de confort.

-Recognize cultural diversity and identity and increase inclusion and connection for all.

-Give a voice to the youth wisdom (recognize youth wisdom).

-Ensigner l’équilibre systémique, EI, des besoins l’appliquer; travailler à court terme avec vision long terme.

-Orienter les pratiques vers la prévention le plus tôt possible lors de développement.

-Encourager la créativité et l’intitiative des jeunes dans un contexte d’austérité.

-Incorporate youth issues into education.

-Mettre les humains au coeur des décisions (putting people first).

-Accompagnement par un professionnel dans tous son parcours (stabilité).

-Adaptation à l’individu et à sa realité.

-Inclusion et transparence dans les soins de santé (réelles).

-Intervention and prevention (with a strong focus on prevention).

-Deconstruct stereotypes… et prejujgés des adultes envers des jeunes.

-Better network of support/prevention and crisis management, especially to prevent out-of-home care placement.

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Open Space The rest of the day was held in Open Space format, where participants both hosted and took part in deep conversations. Open Space Technology is a simple facilitation tool with a profound worldview that creates just enough structure for people to selforganize into the conversations they want to have.

Assumptions Underlying this Method of Engagement: • We can trust the innate intelligence of groups: We don’t need a master conductor to decide what is important for people. People know the conversations they need to have – if we create space for self-organizing, people will connect their own experiences and ideas and this will create new possibilities that did not exist before.

• Diversity is a great source of energy to be unleashed. No one person can see the bigger picture that a diverse group can see. Every person brings: Life experience, their unique vantage point, capabiltiies, ideas, and resources.

• You must take responsibility for what you love: Give everyone a platform to share, express and learn in a way that is meaningful for them. When we have the freedom of choice to engage in what truly enages us, we can contribute the best of ourselves, and everyone benefits.

Question: What promising practices/lessons learned from your own experience would you like to share?

Best Practices for Youth Ageing out of Care/ Youth Wilderness group called “Where the Creek Runs Clearer”/ How do you foster peer-to-peer relationships?/ Street Gangs/ Evaluation Tool Basket/ Move Your World Youth Conference/ Privilege and Cross-Cultural Communication/ De-stress program for youth (Déstresse et Progresse)/ UNIPSED.net/ Youth Engagement/ Citizen Participation/ Child Development Assessment Scale

Participants hosted 12 self-organized conversations across two rounds of Open Space. These conversations delved into the question of “cross-cutting issues that highlight promising practices, major challenges and lessons learned.” The conversation topics were:

The following are summaries of the best practices, challenges, and plans for “next steps” that emerged across the various Open Space conversations.

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Best and Promising Practices: Adults as learners and youth as teachers/ skill-building for youth in outdoor environments/ teach each young person how unique they are/ traditional activities to connect youth with culture/ advocacy related to housing accessibility for youth/ building a committed volunteer base for youth programming/ create safe and inclusive environments/ experiential learning as an educational tool/ recruitment and active involvement of multiple stakeholders in youth advocacy/ increased exposure of youth to diversity and difference/ teaching youth to effectively cope with stress/ creation and use of standardized program evaluation tools/ integration of monitoring and evaluation practices into youth programming.

Challenges: Lack of services for youth/ lack of cultural sensitivity/ lack of available housing/ lack of program funding/ challenges of adhering to youth programs’ policies while meeting the needs of youth/ how to effectively measure the full impact of tools and programs upon youth participants?/ how do you support peer workers?/ how to maintain participation in program over the long-term?/ effective volunteer recruitment and retention/ clients’ lack of recognition of rights.

Next Steps: Creation of more inclusive services/ extending care services/ building infrastructure/ building a collaborative network for youth in care/ program expansion/ training/ develop creative measurements for measurement and evaluation.

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Open Space Con't Key Messages During the Open Space Technology session, participants were asked to create “tweets” to reflect what they were discussing in their small groups. Some of the tweets are listed below: More services for youth in care. We can do it!

Youth are the teachers Building a culture of evaluation Peer to peer from ear to ear.

Ouvrir des espaces de participation citoyenne pour les jeunes; un défi qu’il faut relever!

Expect the unexpected with experiential learning!

Améliorer le recrutement par le combinaison des savoirs.

We’re more similar than we are different. Also, food.

Moins stress = plus estime = moins risque dépression adulte et jeune.

Besoin d’info valides en psychosocial? unpised.net est là.

Closing: Weaving the Threads of Conversation: We ended the day as we began: In Circle. Each person provided one word to describe their experience of the day and wrote it on a piece of paper. Participants then moved around the room, sharing their words with one another. (No record of words available.)

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There's More Online | www.cyccnetwork.org

This event was made possible through the support of our local partner:

Thank you to everyone who participated in Wisdom2Action Montreal for your contributions to this report: Sarah Acoca Amelie Andre Kaia’ti:io Barnes Pier-Olivier Beaudoin-Cote Swaneige Bertrand Josée Boisvert Marise Bonenfant Rhonda Buckland Victoria Bryce Anna Caputo Michel Carignan Léa Champagne Kai Cheng Tom Tehonawathe Curotte Maithé Cyr-Morin Carine Dahab Luc Dancause Tom Dearhouse Marine De Grandi Marc-André Delorme

Rakwirentha Diabo Adil D’Sousa Isabelle Dubois Gilles Dupuis Elizabeth Dvergsten-Beauce Laura El-Hachem Jérôme Elissalde Elizabeth Fast Anne B. Godbout Eduardo González-Castillo Stephanie Guico Alisha Henson Zunilda Herrera Andrée-Anne Houle Amanda Keller Lisa Lachance Isabelle Lacroix Lee-Anne Lavell Katie Lavoie Nicole Lemire

Warren Linds Louis-Philippe Lizotte Catherine Lord Agnes Lorgueilleux Varda Mann-Feder Sue-Ann MacDonald Élodie Marion Alison Maynard Denise Terry McComber Gina Metallic Lise Milne O’nahsaken:ra Montour Catherine Moreau Geneviève Morin Carole-line Nadeau Nicolas Nadeau Nakuset Stephanie Nussbaum Marcelle Partouche Julie Penven

Bonnie Pero Thomasina Phillips Jean-Michel Piquant Lawenhontsaieshon Peterson-McGregor Vinita Rawat Lysanne Renaud Marc Renaud Catherine Richardson Marc Schule Nathalie Simard Rebecca Singbeil Matthew Stern Duncan Stewart Mélanie St-Hilaire Michael Ungar Jaime Wegner-Lohin Terry Young Zeliha

The Wisdom2Action Event Series is hosted by The CYCC Network: CYCC Network

Find more information online: www.cyccnetwork.org @CYCCNetwork /CYCCNetwork

Funding for the CYCC Network is provided by: