TakingITGlobal

C O N N E C T E D N O R T H : A J O U R N E Y O F T R A N S F O R M AT I O N & W E L L- B E I N G 22 Asking: What does Well-Being look like to you? By asking youth explicitly about their perceptions and experiences of Well-Being, TIG sought to free themselves of the constraints imposed by traditional academic, colonial models of Well-Being as their place to start. This starting place is described by TIG Executive Director Jennifer Corriero as "part of an ongoing conversation" and is seen as the entry point for an evolving, maturing concept as part of the evaluation and development of Connected North. This conversation begins with the youth of the North yet is an invitation to everyone involved in the northern communities, education, health promotion, and social policy to contribute something to. TIG embarked on a project to engage youth involved with the program to share their stories about what Well-Being looks like to them both in video documentary and written form. These stories illustrate the many ways in which thinking about, acting on, and learning about the world can influence Well-Being when provided with a supportive environment to do so. "This is something I am passionate about" Connected North youth leader "My Well-Being is honouring the fact that I am here because of the past seven generations fighting for me to be here" Connected North youth leader Connected North's focus on Well-Being within an educational context is what has driven the commitment and involvement of many of the staff and support team behind the program. The program looks at learning within a bigger environment of social, emotional, physical, spiritual, and community Well-Being as part of a journey. This approach is further informed by First Nations understandings and alternative health promotion frameworks like the Four Directions Approach (Warren, 2013) and the First Nations Wellness Continuum Framework (Thunderbird Partnership Foundation, 2019). A relational and systems view of Well-Being Systems and leadership scholar Margaret Wheatley remarks that everything in the universe is in relation to something else: we can understand nothing apart from the relationships we live in (Wheatley, 2007). Understanding and promoting Well-Being for young people in the North must begin with this in mind. Collectively, TIG has developed a story of Well-Being that brings together lived experience of youth, their ideas and perceptions, and begun to fit them with what we know about how to promote Well-Being from the scientific literature. The result is the foundation for a new way to look at Well-Being, one that we will explore next.

• Cover