WELLINGTON COUNTY — A new program called PreVenture is now available to youth across Guelph and Wellington County at the Grove Wellington Guelph’s six current youth wellness locations.
The program focuses on several different coping strategies for youth through personality-based assessments, and seeks to promote mental health, improve decision making, establish positive coping mechanisms and delay substance use among youth.
“This space was designed by youth for youth for the ages 12 to 26,” said team lead at The Grove Wellington Guelph — Palmerston site, Tiffany Fagan.
“As a youth wellness hub, we have everything from drop in,” she said. “We’re open at 11am every morning, Monday to Friday, and then we close at different times in the day.
“If someone’s coming in, and they’ve had a hard day or something’s happening, they can get connected with youth outreach [and] they can help any service navigation.”
Fagan stated in a media release that the introduction of PreVenture at The Grove Wellington Guelph has been a benefit to youth, enabling them to better understand themselves and their social circles.
She added she has seen how PreVenture programming has contributed to youth’s ability to manage and establish goal setting in many aspects of their lives.
The Grove ran its first PreVenture program in March of this year. It is a 90-minute program which helps youth around potential strategies to use based on their personality test results.
“[The program] asks [youth] questions around like: do you like being scared? Do you feel anxious when this is happening? A bunch of different things, and [the youth] rate it, and then they fall into [one of] four categories,” Fagan explained to the Advertiser.
The four categories are anxiety sensitivity, impulsivity, negative thinking and sensation seeking. The evidence-based programming seeks to identify the decision-making and risk-taking behaviours that contribute to youth mental health and wellness.
The goal is that youth will be better informed on their specific and unique personality traits, and better able to understand how they can establish positive mechanisms for decision making, goal setting and maintaining relationships.
“It’s a youth led participation. We don’t just run a workshop, it’s really about the conversation,” began Fagan. “We have a chance to learn about that personality type and then the strategies for coping mechanisms and managing their relationships to improve their mental health and wellness.”
She added that the new program introduces strategies and tactics for youth to manage decision making cope with stressful situations or handle challenges and opportunities. And this provides positive mechanisms for youth to engage in when faced with decisions including drug use.
“PreVenture seeks to delay the use of illicit substances in youth by providing the tools and resources to make positive choices,” she said.
The team lead said that during the school year, their location typically sees anywhere from 60 to 100 youth per day.
“We’re really seeing them come over from the school. So, lunchtime is hot in here,” said Fagan.
The Grove provides lots of free foods to youth who come in such as ramen, mac ‘n’ cheese, and they also do grilled cheese days. Fagan said food has been a big drive for students and youth to come in, and it motivates them to get the support they may be wanting.
She added that lots of the food and activities at The Grove are donated by community members, businesses and organizations. They also receive funding so they can continue doing what they are for the youth in the community.
To learn more about The Grove Hubs or PreVenture, visit thegrovehubs.ca.
