Focus Areas

Issues we're looking at in the community

Sleep – it’s our Foundation

Together, we can be the reason they can rest.

Both the 2022 and 2024 surveys of local youth showed that our young people are not getting the sleep they need! Two thirds of Lanark County youth don’t get the recommended 8+ hours of sleep per night. That’s twice as high as the national average! Sleep is our foundation. Our physical, mental and emotional health depends on it! This is what PYLC is doing to address this risk factor from an ‘upstream’ community approach:

Partnering with the experts at the Canadian Sleep Research Consortium!

Launching a communications campaign to engage parents and the community on the topic of sleep and how we can work together to build environments that support sleep for children and youth in Lanark County. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay updated, and if you haven’t signed up for our monthly newsletter yet – you can do that here!
Working with local youth and the sleep experts to bring youth into the conversation about sleep. This includes:
- Lanark young people co-authoring a research study on the risk and protective factors related to sleep that were found in our surveys
- Engaging youth to help with the messaging around sleep health and the conflicting clocks that influence their sleep (body clock, solar clock and social clock!)
Partnering with Children’s Resources on Wheels and ConnectWell Community Health to deliver free sleep workshops to parents of young children that focus on sleep science and bedtime routines.

We are always looking for ways to partner with other community members or organizations to help improve the environment for children and youth around sleep health. Have an idea or want to get involved? Email info@planetyouthlanark.ca

Safe Spaces: Creating Belonging

Feeling safe, accepted, and connected matters.

In both the 2022 and 2024 student surveys – 35-45% of youth said they didn’t feel safe in their school or community. Upon seeing these results, we did extensive focus groups with local youth, at youth centres and schools, to find out more. We asked them where and when they did feel safe, what contributes to feeling safe and how we can help make community support stronger for them.

We also did further surveys of youth, parents, and service providers to give us more information about the places and topics that stood out.

Here is what we are doing to help youth feel safe in Lanark County:

Investing in our amazing network of local youth centres. Youth told us loud and clear that the spaces and people at local youth centres are doing a great job when it comes to safe, inclusive and supportive spaces. We are happy to be able to use our grant funds to help youth centres hire more staff and offer their amazing programming to more young people. Providing youth with safe spaces and caring adults, as well as a place to connect with each other, is a big protective factor to support thriving.
To further expand opportunities where youth can express themselves and connect with the arts, peers, and caring adults, we are creating innovative music programming. Our partnership with the University of Ottawa’s Music and Health Research Institute will showcase sustainable local music programming that is co-designed by youth and hopefully be a blueprint for other rural communities.
As a proud member of the Lanark County Child and Youth Services Collaborative, we are championing a partnership with the Student’s Commission of Canada to take part in their Hearing Unheard Moments Initiative. This approach will allow us to leverage resources and trainings to improve social cohesion and reduce violence in our communities. Stay tuned for opportunities to participate in workshops or more!