Breaking New Ground in Mental Health Advocacy: Knowledge Mobilization Event was Held on Feb. 24
Mental health is a pressing and complex social issue affecting several racialized communities. Action Dignity Society (ActionDignity), in partnership with the Project Weaving the World View (Weave): Mental Health Systems Change Collaborative held our Knowledge Mobilization (KM) Event on February 24, which showcased the milestone achievements of the Project Weave and its collaborative partners.
Using the Water of Systems Change model, Project Weave aims to improve the experiences and outcomes for racialized communities in relation to mental health services through transformative systems change. The project aims at working towards shifting conditions that hold inequitable access to mental health in place. These conditions include policies, practices, available resources and prevailing mindsets on mental health. Project Weave is a multi-stakeholder, collaborative project comprising public institutions, service providers, community partners, and grassroots ethnocultural organizations.
At the event, we furthered conversations about systems change deepened collaboration and built allyship for ongoing mental health systems change work in Calgary and Alberta. It also offered a sneak peek of systems change in practice, which then translated to collaborative members’ work with their communities of mental health therapists, Black youth, Chinese, Filipino, South Asian and Vietnamese Canadians for the past 10 months and shared findings on impacts of hate crimes and hate incidences on racialized communities’ mental health. In addition, participants also had an opportunity to explore each partner’s community services at their onsite display tables.
Through this event, ActionDignity is leading a new and innovative approach to incorporate equity, diversity and inclusion into all aspects of the Mental Health system. By sharing the voice of the racialized communities, not for profits and institutions, we aim to build better connections with policymakers and incorporate the voices and concerns of ethnocultural communities into policymaking to promote positive mental health and well-being of all racialized Calgarians.
ActionDignity’s Project Weave collaborative partners & projects
- Alberta Health Services, Community Health Promotion Services – facilitating connections between community groups and AHS & mental health service providers
- Calgary Vietnamese Mental Health Support Association, Project Benefits of the Change – changing mental models and help-seeking behaviours among Vietnamese Calgarians
- ECSSEN Career School – Chinese Emotional Support Hotline – changing relationships and connections among Chinese hotline volunteers, between ECSSEN and other community and mainstream partners
- Filipino Rising for Inclusion and Equity to Nurture Democracy - Building Community Approaches & Capacities for Intergenerational Responses to Mental Health
- Lionheart Foundation - Improve Black youth mental health by influencing mental health practices to be more anti-racist and culturally relevant & responsive
- Punjabi Community Health Service Calgary – Project Safari Response – Changing practices and mental models to encourage help-seeking behaviours among the South Asian community
- Realized Your Potential Youth Society of Alberta – Support Our Understanding and Love for Black Youth Mental Health
- Stop Hate Alberta, formally Alberta Hate Crimes Committee – influencing policies through secondary research on the Impact of Hate crimes & Hate incidences on the Mental Health of Racialized communities in Canada.
Funding partner: The Calgary Foundation
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