Includes MANY Resources!

 

 

CYN (Child & Youth Network )Youth Framework

The CYN Youth Framework assists in the design and implementation of programs, services, and collaborative efforts to support happy, healthy, children and youth today; caring, creative responsible adults tomorrow. The goal of the Framework is to collaboratively engage and support all young people to develop their skills and abilities to successfully navigate transitions in life and education, build meaningful relationships, and live healthy lifestyles. It connects the work of community partners and service providers with what research, CYN partners, and young people say is important to their success. By aligning efforts with the Framework, CYN partners are maximizing collaborative efforts.

 

New Tool! Community Developer's Playlist

 

The CYN's Community Developer's Playlist was created to connect teams, individuals and new partners to resources that support community development and engagement. The playlist includes links to information for people who are brand new to community development and for experts who've been working with residents and families for years. The tool includes information about asset-based community development, leadership, diversity and inclusion. This is a living document with plans to update it regularly so if you have a resource to add, please share it via cyn@london.ca.  

 

Neighbourhood Engagement Toolkit 

 

The Neighbourhood Engagement Toolkit supports ongoing engagement of families in Family Centre neighbourhoods. It was created as a blueprint that can be applied across our system for neighbourhoods and provides recommended steps, resources, and strategies that can be incorporated into the community engagement approach in each neighbourhood across the family-centred system.

 

2020 Poverty Trends Report

 

We are excited to share with you the 2020 Poverty Trends Report. London’s first Poverty Trends report was published in 2015, as a resource for education and community planning. The 2020 Poverty Trendsreport uses data and results from 2012 to 2019 and captures annual trends that have shifted in our community over time and builds on the 2015 analysis of poverty in London. We would like to acknowledge Kovacs Group, the CYN Ending Poverty Specialist, Housing – Strategic Programs and Partnerships, Housing – Homeless Prevention, Social Services – Employment and Income Supports, and Children’s Services – Policy and Planning who assisted in the creation and development of this report.

 

We would like to draw your attention to some of the promising results in this report. For example, an increasing number of Londoners are exiting poverty each year, the rate of poverty amongst children and youth and lone parent families is decreasing, and fewer individuals are accessing emergency shelter. The rate of unemployment in London has also decreased and the high school graduation rate has improved. On the other hand, there is an ongoing need to address poverty in London, as our rates remain higher than the provincial average. Low income families continue to fall further behind, an increasing number of Londoners require social assistance, poverty among older adults is increasing, and Indigenous people, newcomers, recent immigrants, and visible minorities continue to be disproportionately impacted by poverty. Poverty is also impacting the ability of Londoner’s to access adequate food, afford suitable housing and secure and maintain a living income.

 

We hope that you will be able to use this report to help inform strategies and initiatives aimed at reducing poverty for children, youth and families in London.

 

Opportunities

 

Webinar: Impact of COVID-19 on Adolescents' Wellbeing

On Friday, April 16th at 12pm EST, the Human Environments Analysis Laboratory (HEAL) of Western University will be hosting an interactive webinar on the impact of COVID-19 on adolescents’ wellbeing and health-related habits. This webinar will include research presentations on the impact of COVID-19 on adolescents' wellbeing by two researchers: 

 

• Dr. Gina Martin will present on the factors associated with better and worse mental wellbeing during the pandemic.

• Dr. Kendra Nelson Ferguson will present findings on the feelings and emotions adolescents experienced and the coping strategies identified and employed to manage those emotions.

 

A panel discussion will follow featuring youth from the HEAL Youth Advisory Council to provide their perspective on the wellbeing of adolescents during the pandemic. The YAC youth will provide insights to tangible implications of the research findings and take questions from the audience. The panel will also include Dr. Javeed Sukhera, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Paediatrics at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at Western University, who will provide his expertise on the subject.

 

Attendees should register for the event here:

 

A Caregiver's Guide to Teaching Consent

A Caregiver’s Guide to Teaching the ABCs of Consent provides caregivers (parents/guardians/early childhood educators etc) with the tools necessary to teach, model, and support kids as they come to know themselves and live in harmony with others from infancy through childhood. Please click here for more information.

 

Tandem: Immediate Mental Health Support for Children and Youth

Vanier Children's Mental Wellness' Crisis Intake Team (C-IT) has re-branded to reach and support more children and youth in the  community. With an estimated 1 in 5 Ontario children and youth facing a mental health challenge and 70% of mental health challenges starting at young ages, early intervention is critical to the health of young people and the entire community. In times of crisis, it can be especially hard to know where to turn. In London and Middlesex, Tandem can make the struggle a little easier with one call. Child and Youth Network partners can help by directing children, youth and their families to the Tandem Website or have them call 519-433-0334 for immediate help.

 

Early Literacy Promotion: The A-B-Cs for busy Clinicians

 

Together with the Canadian Paediatric Society, the Canadian Children's Literacy Foundation presents Early Literacy Promotion: The A-B-Cs for busy clinicians. This accredited CPD model was designed for family physicians, pediatricians, nurses, allied health professionals , and anyone working with families with babies and young children. The module is a free, self-directed, one-hour program with practical information on how to incorporate the guidance into your practice. Access the A-B-Cs for busy Clinicians model.

 

SmartAPPetite Study

The Human Environments Analysis Laboratory at Western University is conducting a research study called SmartAPPetite.  SmartAPPetite is a nutrition and healthy living smartphone app that provides users with scientifically valid information on how to eat healthy, and healthy living in general.  We are currently looking for high school youth to participate in this research study.  For more information or to participate please click here. If you have any questions or would like to help us get the message out about the study, please click here to email.

 

Research Project: Emerging Needs in Newly Vulnerable People

On behalf of the Tamarack Institute and Ambrose University, here is a unique opportunity to participate in a research project focusing on emerging needs in the newly vulnerable. This project is part of a greater research study. The aim is to use the findings from this specific project to identify areas of need and gaps in services for the newly vulnerable. The newly vulnerable are people were fine before COVID, but are now at risk of entering poverty or just entering poverty. Part of this initiative includes recruiting community partners and asking for their assistance to identify people with lived experience. The researchers hope to develop partnerships with these organizations to investigate needs and develop recommendations.

For more information and to participate please click here.

 

YMG London - Music for Everyone!

YMG London is an up-and-coming project in London, Ontario aiming to provide marginalized youth in London with an opportunity both with music, and to better understand their mental health, through virtual classes between students aged around 8-12 (instruments provided) and tutors(students at the University of Western Ontario). Students and tutors learn an instrument for the first time or improve what they already know. Optional sessions are also available for students to speak to their tutors regarding their mental health and anything they are struggling with, and be listened to and respected. For more information please click here to visit the Facebook or click here to email YMG London.

 

Ontario Supports Tourism, Culture, Sport and Recreation Organizations

The Ontario government is investing $105 million through the new Community Building Fund to support non-profit tourism, culture, sport and recreation organizations. The funding will be used to help these non-profits recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and meet the needs of their communities.

 

The fund will be administered by the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) through two program streams:

•               The $55-million operating funding stream will provide community non-profits with the support they need to help sustain their operations and create new experiences and events - such as trail systems, heritage attractions, winter activities and local sport and recreation programming - that are critical to the economic and social well-being of their communities.

•               The $50-million capital funding stream will go to municipalities and non-profit organizations to carry out sport- and recreation-facility infrastructure repairs, including retrofits and rehabilitation to meet COVID-19 public health protocol requirements and local community needs. 

Please click here for more information.

 

Let's Chat: Live Different Circles Program

Live Different Circles is a 7-week virtual program that helps young people in Grades 7 to 10 buildrelationships while gathering virtually around important conversations that will help students adopt key lifestyle values and in turn, will impact our community in a meaningful way. This program runs from April 21st to June 2nd. Please click here to register.

 

Community Volunteer Income Tax Program

 

Resources and information on the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program are available for the upcoming tax season. Taxes can be completed either by a virtual filer or using one of the drop off clinics available through specific libraries across London.

 

To be connected with a virtual tax filer or learn to complete your own taxes

Call 519-953-4333

Email hello@londontaxes.org

 

Drop-off Clinics are available at the following Libraries

o   East London (2016 Dundas St)

o   Crouch (550 Hamilton Rd)

o   Beacock (1280 Huron St)

o   Central (251 Dundas St)

o   Cherryhill (301 Oxford St)

 

Those wishing to use the drop off clinics will need to complete Drop Off Forms. Forms can be printed and completed prior to visiting one of the library locations or can be picked up from the library directly and returned upon completion.

Full Colour and Black and White posters are available as well as Printouts.

 

ReThink Poverty – 2021 Upcoming Events

Poverty affects our entire community and too many of our neighbours can't participate in everything London has to offer. ReThink Poverty is a workshop designed to provide attendees with an opportunity to learn more about the issue of poverty and focus on solutions for addressing the systemic and structural causes of poverty. Sessions will be done entirely done over Zoom.

 

If you wish to host this workshop at your workplace, please reach out to Shane Clarke to discuss setting up a session for you and your staff.

 

Upcoming Events - Register now through Eventbrite

Friday April 16, 2021, 9 a.m. -12 p.m.

Friday May 21, 2021, 9 a.m. -12 p.m.

 

Blind Low Vision Early Intervention Program (BLVEIP) Update

 

 

Starting April 1, 2021, TVCC, formerly Thames Valley Children's Centre will begin providing BLVEIP services to children and families in the southwest region. TVCC became the lead agency for BLVEIP on September 1, 2019, along with the Infant Hearing and tykeTALK Programs. This hyperlink contains additional service and referral information from both TVCC and Vision Loss Rehabilitation Ontario/Canada (VLRO/C).

 

TVCC is grateful for the longstanding collaboration and partnerships between TVCC and VLRO/C. Their two organizations look forward to continuing to support children and families through our collective range of services. We want to thank VLRO/C for providing outstanding services to children and families. TVCC asks that you please share this update with your organizations.

 

Pathways to Care Project

Pathways to Care is a community-driven and youth-led systems change project committed to transforming the mental healthcare system for Black children, youth and their families. Pathways to Care is looking to speak with Black Youth, community members and mental health workers on the best ways to improve care.  For more information please click here.