Increasingly, there are concerns around young people’s wellbeing and mental health. However, traditional approaches focus primarily on services and gaps, and fail to capture the things that contribute to young people’s individual and collective wellbeing. When we know what’s already working, we can strengthen it and also ensure that it’s not inadvertently erased.
Young people have unique insight into what’s working for them. Over the past nine months, a diverse group of 26 young people have partnered with the Full Frame Initiative and the Hispanic Alliance of Southeastern Connecticut. Through surveys and focus groups, these community researchers have been mapping the places and spaces in New London that contribute to young people’s wellbeing.
Young people are the most valuable asset in New London now and for our future. Ensuring that they are able to meet their needs for wellbeing, including understanding what’s working for them, needs to be a priority for all of us. I’m proud of the work our young people did to identify wellbeing assets and challenges. Now let’s work together to make sure all of our young people have a fair shot at wellbeing.
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We are all hard-wired for people and belonging, safety, predictability, a sense of influence, and getting our needs met. CWAM strove to identify how young people are getting these needs met in community. For more information on the framework behind CWAM, please see the Five Domains of Wellbeing.
For the purpose of this project, we included those aged between 14-26. Visit the link below for a brief overview of who was represented in the surveys and focus groups.
We have taken the raw data and represented them into graphs and charts that may be manipulated by demographics. To understand the graphs and charts, it will be important to understand the framework on which CWAM is based.
Young people working on this project shared findings and recommendations with decisionmakers.
Given limited timeframe and resources, we know that we did not reach everyone in the New London youth community. Please contact Jeanne Milstein if you’d like to explore expanding this project to reach a wider group.