Christian Gammon-Roy
Tribune
Several local organisations, businesses and schools have begun putting on youth-based projects all over West Nipissing, thanks to Planet Youth Nipissing’s Youth Impact Fund. Of the 38 projects approved across the region, 17 of them are in West Nipissing, and they are designed to address issues identified through a youth survey based on the Icelandic Prevention Model, the goal of which is to curb youth substance use. The recently approved local projects center on programming that would give youth opportunities to connect to their community and with caregivers. Some are already ongoing, such as Literacy West Nipissing’s Youth Connecting Through Learning program, which goes on until March, with others due to be announced soon.
“The Icelandic Prevention Model is an evidence-based approach to reducing substance use among youth,” describes Renée Vaillancourt, Director of Community Health Programming at the West Nipissing Community Health Centre (WNCHC), and one of the people sitting on the Planet Youth Steering Committee. The model relies on consistent survey data. When Planet Youth Nipissing first launched, it began by putting out a survey in 9 high schools in the district. “Participants were primarily grade 10 students that attended school on the day of the survey, with some schools including grades 9 and 11 to meet the minimum count for anonymity. The total response rate was 72%,” indicates the Planet Youth Nipissing website. The website contains the data from this initial survey, collected in early 2024, broken down into categories of wellbeing, leisure, substance use and school.
Results showed 18% of respondents had drunk alcohol in the last 30 days, while 16% had used cannabis in the same period. Seventeen per cent used e-cigarettes daily and 27% reported drinking alcohol “sometimes or often in the home of others”. Only 37% got an average of 8 hours of sleep per night, with 29% of females and 45% of males reporting they had good mental health, and 47% of females and 54% of males stating they enjoyed good physical health. Just 62% felt safe at school and 54% felt that adults at school cared about them. Screen time was high, with 45% spending 3 hours or more per day on social media, and 26% spending the same amount of time on video games daily.
While the survey poses obvious and direct questions about healthy behaviours and substance use, it also tries to identify the sense of community the responding youth feels. One of the things that the Icelandic Model has identified as a mitigating factor to risk is how deep of a connection someone feels to those around them. Vaillancourt explains that the Planet Youth Nipissing survey looks into this by asking questions about “their relationship with family members, how they interact with their peers, what it’s like for them at school, if they have positive relationships with teachers or role models within the school setting,” as well as other interactions with adults and caregivers.
