Congratulations to the All Saint’s High School “Bounce Back: Resilience is Brilliance” mental health awareness project! They were recently awarded the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Youth for Youth Award, an award given to initiatives created by youth for youth.  

 “Health care is about more than what happens inside the walls of a hospital. It’s about all the things happening in our community, in everyday life, and through people like the volunteers, students and professionals we are recognizing today,” said Alex Munter, President and CEO of CHEO. “They are helping Ottawa’s children and youth to lead healthy, active lives, stay safe, and get services and support that can change the trajectory of their whole lives.”

We couldn’t agree more. Congrats guys and keep up the great work!

To find out more about this project, click here!

The Dare to Dream project Youth Educating Against Harassment (Y.E.A.H) is featured in the April 2013 Kinark Child and Family Services newsletter! Among other things, the newsletter showcases exciting youth engagement work being done in the community, and the Y.E.A.H team has been profiled about their successes in running an entirely youth-led anti- bullying program. Congratulations, Y.E.A.H team!

You can check out the piece HERE and find out more about the Y.E.A.H team HERE! 

We’ve finally wrapped up our Fall 2012 grant process and it looks like we’re able to fund some pretty awesome projects this round! Here’s a little introduction to the successful applicants.

To check out the full project profiles, head to the project showcase page

Y.E.A.H (Youth Educating Against Harassment)
Midland, ON
Running monthly stigma-reducing and anti-bullying events and activities that will promote positive mental health and a happy and safe school atmosphere.

Be the Change/Be Unique/Be Bill 13
Kingston, ON
Giving youth the tools to understand, recognize and prevent bullying and be the change in school.

Bounce Back: Resilience is Brilliance!
Ottawa, ON
Proving that mental illness is treatable, manageable and that everyone affected from it can bounce back!

Mental Health Awareness Week
Ajax, ON
Raising awareness about mental health and empowering students to break taboos and take steps towards preventing, treating and accepting mental illness.

Elevated Grounds
Orillia, ON
Using theatre, music and stress-reducing activities to help students transitioning into high school recognize and cope with new stresses.

Stress-Bust That Stigma
Port Elgin, ON
Kicking stress to the curb through fun and educational stress-busting activities over the school year.

UCC Mental Health Week
Chatham, ON
Inspiring students to re-think their attitudes towards mental health throughout a fun and interactive week

Respect and Restore
Burlington, ON
Making school a place where students can succeed while feeling safe, supported and well-connected.

ASIST Team StressBuster Days
Brantford
Helping students find a healthy way of coping with stress by offering exam prep, healthy snacks, exercise, funny videos and more throughout the year.

Stand Together
Essex, ON
Getting together the creative talents of local youth to showcase experiences of bullying and mental illness.

Unheard Voices of Youth
Hamilton
Harnessing the talent of youth to broadcast a radio segment of youth experiences with mental health issues.

The Wild Den
Burlington
Gathering the school in a re-designed student space full of school spirit, mental health resources and weekly mental health activities.

The last Dare to Dream Application deadline closed on October 31st 2012 and the superstar D2D Review Team has met and reviewed all submitted applications. The team found innovative project ideas and a whole lot of passion and heart in so many applications. We want to applaud everyone who took the time to develop an idea and apply!

Whether you are receiving funding this round or not, we thought everyone could benefit from a few things the review team ran into while reviewing:

1. Using point form is a great way to ensure your great ideas and plans don’t get lost in a big sea of words! Just remember that we still want you to be thorough and explain where you’re going with your points.

2. The more info the better! Often times, the review team is left with a lot of questions like: what will those presentations be about? Who will be facilitating that workshop? What specific activities and programming will be organized for that “chill room”? Etc.

3. Do NOT assume that the review team knows who you are and what your ideas are all about. For example, don’t just drop an activity or program name without explaining its purpose, how it works and how you will do it.

4. We know that you can’t put EVERYTHING in your application, so please don’t hesitate to provide us with links, pictures, videos, your Facebook page or other outside information that can help us more fully understand your project idea. Hint: use the “Extras” section for this!

5. If you are requesting training of any sort (i.e. ASIST, Restorative Practice, etc.) we want to know how exactly you plan to bring what you’ll learn back to your school or community – whether it be through presentations or interactive activities to share your newfound knowledge and skills!

6. For your action plan and timeline, don’t forget approximate start and end dates to your project and try to include possible dates for activities and events so we can see how realistic your plan is.

7. Remember: the review process takes about 2 months from the deadline for us to reach a decision, and at least another month after that until you get funding. It’s a good idea to plan to start your projects after you anticipate receiving funding.

8. Finally, please use the resources available on the website when developing your application. Everything you need to know to build a strong application is there including an Application Walkthrough, Link with an Agency page and much more!

If you did not receive funding this round, please do not feel discouraged! We encourage you to contact one of the Dare to Dream Youth Coordinators well before the next deadline (March 31st 2013) for some help in redeveloping and strengthening your next application.

Welcome to the Dare to Dream Brag Blog!  This is the hot-spot for all dream-worthy news.

Dream-worthy news?  Yes, this blog’s main purpose is to highlight what’s new with current Dare to Dream projects.  However, any news can be dream-worthy, whether it’s about Dare to Dream or just about child and youth mental health in general.

Anything like fun facts, events or groups youth can get involved in, or testimonials from a Dare to Dream project or youth-led initiative. Don’t be afraid to send me a message or shoot me a link to pics, videos, news articles, or cool websites.

By the way, my name is Fiona Cooligan and I am the youth coordinator for the Dare to Dream program.  If you want more info or need help applying for a grant, just contact me at D2D@cheo.on.ca or head to the Contact Us page for more ways to get in touch.  I’ll respond as soon as I can, but if you need help in a hurry, chances are the answers to your questions are somewhere on our site.