HBSC Youth Action Group

The HBSC Youth Action Group gives input and recommendations to the Public Health Agency of Canada. This group was first consulted in March 2011 in Ottawa regarding the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. HBSC is a continuing, cross-national survey conducted in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe. The survey is done every four years in more than 40 different countries. This survey provides an overview of young people’s health, aged 11 to 15. The HBSC Youth Action Group gave insight to the findings from the 2011 HBSC survey, which are captured in the national report, The Health of Canada’s Young People: a mental health focus (2011)¹.

In March 2012, the HBSC Youth Action Group was brought together again to develop effective and engaging communication tools to share findings from the study with young people across Canada. They created videos, posters and activities to spread key messages from the HBSC report and get young people talking about their health. The communication tools they created can be found in: Our Messages.

HBSC Youth Engagement Toolkit

This website is designed to be used as an educational toolkit. It houses the HBSC national report, youth developed videos that address findings from the report, and activities and discussion questions to explore these issues with young people. If you are interested in running a workshop or examining health issues in your classroom, check out the Toolkit page.

1. Freeman, John, et al. 2011. The Health of Canada's Young People: a mental health focus. Ottawa: Public Health Agency of Canada.