BIG PICTURE
Valley Youth Partnership for Engagement and Respect (VYPER) is a Health Canada-funded youth-adult collaborative project running across the Fraser Health region (Burnaby to Boston Bar) of British Columbia. The project’s ultimate aim is to delay, reduce and prevent illicit and non-prescribed drug use and related harm among youth (12-24). It approaches youth substance use through the len
s of the social determinants of health – acknowledging that substance use and especially substance use-related harm is a complex phenomenon. VYPER works from the public health mantra, “Make the healthy choice the easy choice.” It acknowledges that for many youth - especially those who are disadvantaged by their living circumstances and/or who are living in rural communities - healthy choices may be harder to access than some more-problematic choices, including substance use. Goals
VYPER has three overarching goals:
1) support youth resilience by strengthening and expanding collaborative, respectful relationships with responsible, caring peers and adults;
2) build supportive environments that open space for youth to explore and re-evaluate their social and personal identities – moving toward self-assigned preferred identities that are based on personal strengths and capabilities;
3) co-create a range of meaningful youth roles and responsibilities that support the development of a sense of self-efficacy (gaining more control over the decisions that affect their lives) and reduce fatalism (creating opportunities to discover a more positive outlook for the future). PRIORITY AREAS
VYPER’s 5 priorities areas are:
1) Youth Engagement,
2) School Capacity Building,
3) Caregiver Engagement & Education,
4) Community Champion Engagement & Capacity Building,
5) Knowledge Exchange/Communities of Practice. LEGACY
In the spirit of beginning with the end in mind, VYPER aims to leave a legacy of two enhanced and sustained community behaviours:
1) behaviours that are less about “service-provision” and more-consistently about “collaboration” when it comes to youth program development, delivery and evaluation – especially programs that are:
a. youth-directed, adult facilitated (Youth-Led Collaboration);
b. adult-directed, youth-facilitated (Adult-Led Collaboration), and
c. youth-adult partnerships (YAP)
2) behaviours that leverage resources across the urban, urban-adjacent and rural communities of the Fraser Health region, recognizing that localized challenges can be influenced – positively and negatively – by ecological factors that reach from and into adjacent communities and the region as a whole. VYPER will support grants, events, facilitation and training from February 2014 to August 2016. The project is administered by Abbotsford Community Services and managed by Impact Youth Substance Use Services.
