Learning Institute Shareback/Wrap Up 2021

Frayme’s 2021 Learning Institute

Following on the success of Frayme’s first Learning Institute (LI) in 2020, this year’s LI brought together national and international partners across diverse disciplines, backgrounds, and experiences to facilitate reflection and information sharing. Most importantly, the LI was an opportunity to come together to amplify system transformation through integrated youth services and care for youth.

While the challenges presented by the global COVID-19 pandemic meant that the event was hosted online, participants made the most of the virtual platform and the opportunities it provided to engage with others, share ideas and challenges, and tap into the knowledge and expertise of key players in the field of youth mental health and substance use services. The Learning Institute highlighted youth and family advocates as system changers, and featured diverse voices and stories about the critical role of lived and living experience to inform practice, research and overall system transformation. 

A great big THANK YOU to our wonderful youth co-hosts Kulpreet Singh, Cierra Garrow, as well as youth and family co-moderators Kamill Santafe, Michele Sparling, Lauren Luliani, Hans Ang, Yalinee Barenda and Cayden Boudreau for doing an excellent and crucial job at guiding all of our participants through three days of the learning institute!

Thanks, too, to Forest Anderson and Josianne Fernandez, the co-hosts of Frayme’s first-ever Hackathon, for making the event a great success!

Co-Host Cierra Garrow: Hello! My name is Cierra Garrow and I am a youth living, playing, and working in Kenora, Northwestern Ontario. I am a youth with lived experience of mental illness, health care system navigation, service user and now a service provider as a Children's Mental Health Therapist. I am passionate about youth wellness, mental health, engagement and advocacy and hope you'll join me in learning about how we can defy convention through alternative approaches to youth mental health and substance abuse approaches.

Co-Host Kulpreet Singh: Kulpreet Singh is the Founder and Director of the South Asian Mental Health Alliance (SAMHAA), a non-profit society founded in 2010 specializing in culturally safe, language specific knowledge mobilization and advocacy for equitable mental health services for BIPOC. Initiatives of SAMHAA include the South Asian Youth Mental Health (SAYMH) ambassador program, funded by the BC Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions, and the Students Overcoming Opioid Use Disorders and Addictions (SOOUDA) organization, a youth-led community outreach initiative to address the overdose crisis. With over 15 years of public speaking and grassroots health promotion experience, along with lived experience with ADHD, Kulpreet Singh is a regular guest on English and Punjabi language media outlets, and facilitates workshops on various topics within the community.

Hackathon Co-Host Forest Anderson: Forest is a computer science student at Carleton University, where he studies game development. He has experience running many different hackathons, game jams, and meetups.

Hackathon Co-Host Josianne Fernandez: Josianne Fernandez (she/her/hers) is a Youth Advisor at the Ontario Centre of Excellence for Child and Youth Mental Health (the Centre) in Ottawa, ON, Canada. At the Centre, she works with the youth engagement team to ensure youth voice is embedded in Ontario's youth engagement initiatives. She is passionate about meaningful youth engagement and has worked in various youth engagement capacities for the last five years. Josianne enjoys reading, painting, and teaching her Goldendoodle, Toby new tricks in her free time.

Co-Moderator Cayden Boudreau

Co-Moderator Hans Ang: Youth advisor for CAMH. Studying psychology at McMaster University. Rock climber & Star Trek(kie) fan!

Co-Moderator Kamill Santafe: Kamill Santafe (they/them/theirs) is a gender non-conforming-Trans* youth residing in Algonquin territory- Ottawa. Kamill’s lived experiences, studies, and training have allowed them to gain expertise in various areas. Knowledge mobilization, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of youth peer support and youth engagement in mental health care and community-based organizations are their passion.

Co-Moderator Lauren Iuliani: Lauren Luliani is an MBA student at Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario. She has worked with a number of hospitals and service providers, focusing on youth advocacy in the mental health and substance use space, but also delving into strategy, research, program design, and other related topics. She is particularly passionate about health equity and loves an evening spent with a good book.

Co-Moderator Michele Sparling: Michele Sparling, a Nova Scotia ex-pat living in Ontario, is an active mental health advocate, speaker, and participant on boards and committees locally, provincially, and nationally. Michele is a believer in integrated systems of care, peer support, and youth and family engagement; she is Chair of the Family Advisory Committee for Frayme. She is a partner at Innovative HR, and thanks to Covid is currently missing her weekly rec. hockey playing.

Co-Moderator Yalinee Barendra: Yalinee Barendra (she/her) is a mental health advocate. She is a member of the Frayme Family Advisory Committee. She has lived experience both as a youth and family caregiver in the mental health and substance use system. She has advised for projects involving organizations such as CAMH. She believes in the power of small changes to make an impact in systematic change.