Project 11 hosts first mental health summit for high school students

The True North Youth Foundation’s (TNYF) mental health program for youth, Project 11, hosted its first Lead Well Summit, welcoming 500 students from 38 high schools across the province on Nov. 6. It was another milestone for the program, which celebrates 11 years providing mental wellness education to schools and also officially launched its expanded curriculum to high school students this year.

The event connected students from across the province on the important topic of mental wellness. It featured Winnipeg Jets players openly discussing their own experiences and coping strategies around mental health. Students then broke out into sessions led by experts on topics of key interest such as leadership, resilience and nutrition.

“I think its so imperative. I think a lot of times we talk to kids about being vulnerable, and its good to talk about it, but I think taking it a step further and actually giving them some skills is something more tangible for them to take out into the world and practice,” said Courtney Rypien, a mental wellness worker at Frontier Collegiate in Cranberry Portage, Manitoba who works with students from grade 9 to 12. She attended the Project 11 Summit with students from her school.

Project 11 is especially important to Rypien, as her cousin was Rick Rypien, the Manitoba Moose and Winnipeg Jets player the program was created in honour of. She feels that Project 11 turned something negative into something positive.

“I feel like the program is so close to my heart because of my cousin and how it was created in memory of him,” said Rypien. She also interned with Project 11 when getting her master’s in counselling psychology, so she has been involved with the program since the very beginning.

As a mental wellness worker, Rypien incorporates lessons from the Project 11 curriculum into therapeutic sessions with students within the Frontier School Division. She recently held a group session on stress and found the curriculum very effective. “They loved it. Just the engagement piece is really helpful in bringing them together.”

Rypien believes Project 11 gives students the resources and opportunities to share how they’re feeling, something she felt was missing when she was a kid.

“Just reflecting on how I grew up, there was nothing really like this. So, I think its so important because it gives the kids an opportunity to name feelings, verbalize emotions, work through things, and know its okay. It creates safe spaces and environments,” said Rypien.

Physical education and health teacher Jill Swirsky, who also attended the summit with students from Sisler High School, believes Project 11 lessons have positively impacted her grade 10 students, especially since mental health is not part of the academic curriculum.

“I think Project 11 is ahead of the game in reaching students on that level. It will be a fantastic resource for teachers to use, if they weren’t already, to deliver those curricular outcomes on mental health.”

Swirsky was a part of the Project 11 high school pilot and helped to frame Project 11 lessons to fit expected learning.

“When they started the pilot for the high school program, I incorporated some of the lessons and ideas into my classroom with my own students,” she said. “I definitely feel like it helps them to just feel more normal about what they’re experiencing on a day-to-day basis. I find that they are using the strategies more on their own then they would have prior to incorporating the ideas through these lessons.”

Swirsky finds that some of the simplest lessons, like normalizing talking about mental health or positive coping strategies, are the ones that resonate with students the most. These are the lessons they will take with them throughout high school and after.

“Its equipping them to better manage stressful situations, relationships, or environments in the future. I think normalizing the talk around mental health is not just changing lives but saving a lot of peoples’ lives too,” said Swirsky. “These students are future leaders. We are hopefully giving these future leaders the skills they need to better serve the community and themselves.”

Project 11 is available at no cost to all kindergarten to grade 12 teachers across Manitoba. To register to become a Project 11 teacher, visit projecteleven.ca.