Frayme Strategic Plan 2021-2024 Outline

Our Story

Here’s the 411 on how Frayme grew from an idea to a national organization

Frayme’s origins start in 2017 with Healthy Young People Everywhere (HYPE), an international knowledge translation (KT) platform that initially proposed to fill the gap between research in Youth Mental Health and Addictions (YMHA) and the pressing need for its dissemination and clinical implementation.

After a few years, plenty of consultation and feedback, HYPE blossomed into Frayme. What changed exactly? Well Frayme still possesses a strong research and scientific network but now we’ve included the knowledge of youth, families and service providers, shaken and stirred, and come out with a national organization informed by pan-Canadian and global expertise. Expertise in all its different shapes and sizes, and yes, that includes lived experience.

Frayme now works by connecting those designing and implementing service with the best evidence in the youth mental health and substance use (YMHSU) system to create informed and impactful solutions for youth and their families.

How did we develop our Strategic Plan?

The 2021-2024 Frayme Strategic Plan was developed through a six month process which integrated feedback from across the YMHSU sector and those who had been connected and involved in supporting Frayme since its inception. We engaged youth, families, service providers, system stakeholders, funders and internal stakeholders. To truly co-develop the content we used multiple formats including national surveying, group discussions and individual interviews.

With that being said, we owe a huge shout-out to all those who provided feedback. Our hope is that this Strategic Plan is one that reflects the role and type of impact that our YMHSU system needs Frayme to invest in as we move through the coming years.

Detailed Timeline

• June 2020
Frayme launches a national survey for service providers and system stakeholders to understand more about priority areas of knowledge need across the YMHSU system.

• June-October 2020
Frayme team conducts ongoing consults with youth experts, family experts, organizations and system stakeholders to understand more about priority areas of knowledge and impact need across the YMHSU system.

• July 2020
Frayme surveys its internal team and Board to identify key areas of impact need across the YMHSU system and the role Frayme should play in supporting these areas of need.

• August 2020
Frayme starts formulating the Strategic Plan content.

• September 2020
Frayme consults with Frayme family experts in a focused discussion about the identified areas of knowledge and impact need and review of the initial Strategic Plan content.

• November 2020
Frayme consults with funders in the YMHSU space to understand more about the priority funding areas in the YMHSU system and to review the initial Strategic Plan content.

• November 2020
Frayme consults with final youth experts to review all aspects of the Strategic Plan and provide feedback and further direction.

• December 2020
The Frayme Strategic Plan is reviewed by the Frayme Board and approved as the roadmap for 2021-2024.

• January 2021
Frayme shares back and reviews the Strategic plan with its key consult groups.

• February 2021
The 2021-2024 Frayme Strategic Plan is launched at the Frayme Learning Institute.

What’s all this about anyway?

Us. It’s about us. All of us. But more specifically it’s about the principles and vision that is driving the way we work and what we work on. If we’re asking you to drive the work with us, then it’s only fair you understand what you’re signing up for.

What’s the Vision?

All youth, young adults, and their families have access to the help they need to be well, when they need it, in the context in which they live.

What’s the Mission?

Frayme leads a national and international network that connects mental health, health and social services working with youth and young adults to accelerate the integration and implementation of youth care in Canada and around the world.

Frayme Core Values

Our core values form the foundation on which we perform work and conduct ourselves. In an ever-changing world, core values remain constant. Core values are not descriptions of the work we do or the strategies we employ to accomplish our mission. The values underlie our work, how we interact with each other, and which strategies we employ to fulfill our mission. The core values are the basic elements of how we go about our work.

Reciprocity: Great things happen when great people come together. We believe in building relationships through information sharing and collaboration with our partners.
Equity: We incorporate diverse perspectives by providing opportunities for all persons to be heard, especially those who have been underserved or under-represented.
Integrity: We recognize the importance of being open, genuine, supportive, and ethical in all our actions.
Engagement: We engage and collaborate with diverse partners (including; youth, family, Indigenous partners, service providers and researchers) to support system transformation.
Excellence: We work to the highest standards, and lead through incorporating best knowledge, wisdom and practices in all that we do. We commit to supporting the scaling and amplification of best knowledge and capacity to inform the system.

Guiding Principles

Frayme’s Guiding Principles articulate the organizational approach we take when working with others across the system.

Shared Purpose and Collaboration

Sustained Engagement

Youth and Person-Focus

Build Clarity and Trust

Mutual Respect

Learn More

Why Frayme?

Our Theory of Change

Why do we exist?

What do we offer?

Who do we work with?

What’s unique about us?

Learn More

Pillars of Impact

We connect with youth, families and our network of providers from across Canada and beyond to help us ensure we have value-driven impact. We live in an ever-changing and evolving environment and that priorities are shifting and expanding. Supporting the radical change needed in our systems is critical and Frayme aims to create spaces and bring together partners that can help us find and create innovative solutions together. Over the coming years, Frayme will create spaces to share and learn within the following Pillars of Impact:

Bring best available information and knowledge to those implementing service

Addressing identified gaps in service (i.e integrating vocational supports, increasing accessibility of system navigation to appropriate services, and integrating substance use models in service etc.) innovations in service design and delivery

Promote consistent use of data and other evidence to inform service design and delivery

Understanding quality virtual care developing common measures and standards of care

Implement and scale best practices for integrating youth and family expertise

Advancing value of lived/living experience and expertise mobilizing knowledge about best practices for engaging youth and families

Collaborate with equity-seeking partners to amplify diverse knowledge and evidence

Invest in inclusive and equitable service solutions for diverse youth accessing mental health and substance use support, including youth and their families who identify as:

BIPOC
LGBTQ2S+
Rural and Remote
Low Social Economic Status (SES)
Having cognitive and physical exceptionalities

Amplify authentic voice of those representing equity-seeking youth and families in the YMHSU sector

Pillars of Outcomes

The outputs include: New knowledge and evidence identification; Partnership development; Tool, framework and method development; System and Partner Capacity development; Network collaborations

Short-term

Short Term Outcomes

Knowledge products
Learning Institute(s)
Learning forums
Presentations and panels
National platform development
Trainings and workshops

Medium-Term

Medium Term Outcomes

Community-engaged policy, practice, process, and product
Community-engaged implementation of knowledge
National granting partnerships and innovations
Content specific partnerships and co-delivery
Youth and family experts engaged in partnerships
Partnerships across the Frayme network platform

Long-Term

Long Term Outcomes

Health & Wellbeing Impact
Social Impact
Economic Impact
Environmental Impact

Download the report

Frayme’s Technical Skills

Frayme’s operations as a cutting-edge knowledge mobilization network requires dynamic and impact-focused expertise. Our team of experts hold skills spanning:

Bridging and facilitating national and international partnerships around aligned and outcome-driven work
Supporting the development of measurable outcomes and sharing learnings across the system
Co-creating and co-delivering workshops and webinars that address critical knowledge gaps
Building capacity to use multi-faceted evidence
Leading deeper-dive learning forums that facilitate courageous conversations
Creating synthesized knowledge products that integrate multi-faceted evidence
Integrating lived and living expertise through design, development and implementation
Increasing evaluation capacity across the YMHSU system

Knowing How We’re Doing

A commitment to listening, learning and improving is fundamental to what we do and believe at Frayme. System work is hard, yet possible! We believe that youth and families deserve system leaders who engage in hearing what does and doesn't work, as well as what we are trying to improve. To make sure we are growing and learning as an organization we have specific actions we take:

Asking for feedback and evaluating our work
Capturing and analyzing the information
Reviewing and understanding the information
Applying the information with articulated steps

This ongoing feedback cycle can take multiple forms and may include many individuals. We move through this cycle through:

Asking our expert advisors along the way
Asking our network for partnership and project specific feedback
Project debriefs that include youth and families
Sharing our stumbles with others so that our whole system can learn
Tracking and reporting on our projects, initiatives and overarching objectives in a structured process
Measuring against our articulated outcomes and outputs
Investing in evaluating our impact through evaluation frameworks

So, what’s next?

Look, there's a lot of work to be done.
There is so much room for improvement in the system.
You know it, we know it - so what are we going to do about it?

Hopefully our Pillars of Impact answers this question from a practical perspective, but more importantly, Frayme is going to continue growing, expanding and listening to all those within the YMHSU system so that we can collectively shift to a place where every young person and their family have access to the help they need to be well, when they need it, in the context in which they live. Until we reach that moment, our work will not be done.

Are you ready to join us?

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