About YouthSpark

The aim of the YouthSpark Health Promotion Web Site Project was to provide Huron County youth with the opportunity and skills to design and implement a web-based intervention, under the guidance of a full-time website design expert and a project coordinator. The site serves two main functions.

• First, the site acts as a local interactive resource centre for information created by local rural youth that is specific to their needs related to a variety of health promotion and other issues identified as important for youth in this region.
• Second, the site provides ongoing peer support through a secure discussion board, which is moderated by project youth in partnership with public health professionals in order to answer questions and refer youth to appropriate service providers.

Other web-site features are being continually added to meet youth’s needs based on their feedback. It is an iterative process. The web site attempts to feature community and youth assets (e.g. music and art) and uses multimedia assets to encourage youth engagement.

The aim of the project was to address alcohol-use in ways that appeal to youth and to encourage risk reduction behaviours, while focusing on the underlying factors associated with problematic substance use. We hoped to increase engagement in the community, enhance skills, self esteem and employment potential for youth.

If you visit the YouthSpark web site, you will see that although it addresses alcohol content, it is not explicit to the site. This was a strategic decision that may seem to go against how you believe a health promotion web site should appear. As you work through the steps of our Toolkit, you will see why we made certain decisions and how the participatory approach we took shaped the direction of the project. As you navigate through the Toolkit, you will see that the health promotion topics addressed by the site grew to be broader than simply to include alcohol use.

This online health promotion project involved working with several groups of youth, including at-risk youth, to develop a peer-led initiative using an iterative participatory design process. A menu of topics and features from the health promotion web site that was developed is shown in the image on the left. A link to the YouthSpark web site is also available in the right hand column.

This web-based project aimed to provide both at-risk youth and youth at large with an opportunity to engage in their community both online and in person, thereby not only providing a substance use prevention tool but also addressing underlying factors associated with problematic substance.

YouthSpark.ca

Click above to hear a few words from our youth who worked on this project.