The Well Community Collective is a community-driven initiative committed to improving youth mental health and well-being. It brings together youth, families, service providers, and local organizations to co-create spaces that are welcoming, inclusive, and responsive to young people's unique needs.

The Collective’s flagship initiative is the creation of The Well Youth Hubs—youth-centred spaces designed to bring this vision to life. Overall, The Well is focused on co-designing safe, supportive, and stigma-free environments for youth to access care, connect with peers, and build brighter futures.

The hubs provide free, barrier-free access to a wide range of supports, including mental health, substance use, and primary care services, as well as help with education, employment, housing, and wellness—all under one roof.

Bruce Grey Huron and Perth Counties have experienced growing mental health challenges among youth, compounded by rural barriers such as limited access to care, transportation, and stigma. By launching The Well Youth Hubs, we’re responding to this need with an integrated, local solution that centers youth voices, improves access, and fosters community resilience.

A Youth Wellness Hub is a one-stop shop where youth aged 12 to 25 can access a full range of free services, including mental health support, primary care, substance use services, employment help, education, and housing resources. What makes it different is its youth-driven design—young people help shape everything from programming to space design—along with its integrated, stigma-free, and walk-in-friendly model.

Youth are at the core of the design and delivery process. Through advisory councils, peer leadership, and co-design workshops, they help determine services, programming, aesthetics, and staffing values. Their lived experiences and expertise guide us in creating spaces that reflect their needs and aspirations.

Our approach is grounded in best practices such as shared decision-making, integrated care, early intervention, and trauma-informed services. We draw on the Youth Wellness Hub Ontario (YWHO) model and incorporate continuous evaluation, feedback loops, and research partnerships to ensure quality and impact.

Accessibility is a top priority. We’re developing low-barrier entry points, including walk-in services, virtual care options, mobile outreach, and flexible scheduling. We’re also working closely with local transportation providers and using technology to bridge geographic gaps in care.

Our formal partners in Grey Bruce include Keystone Child Youth and Families, BG Child and Family Services; CMHA GB, GB Public Health, GB Ontario Health Team, YMCA Owen Sound GB and partners from local school boards, housing collaborations, employment agencies, municipal leaders, and—most importantly—youth and families. These partnerships ensure a genuinely collaborative, wraparound approach to care.In

In Huron Perth, our formal partners include CMHA (Canadian Mental Health Association) HP, CMHA TV, HP Children’s Aid Society, HP Centre for Children and Youth, Perth Huron United Way, YMCA Southwestern Ontario, HP & Area Ontario Health Team, and partners from local school boards, housing collaborations, employment agencies, municipal leaders, and—most importantly—youth and families. These partnerships ensure a genuinely collaborative, wraparound approach to care.

Equity and inclusion are built into the foundation of our work. We’re engaging directly with youth from marginalized groups to co-create culturally safe and affirming spaces. This includes offering culturally relevant programming, hiring diverse staff, and collaborating with Indigenous organizations and 2SLGBTQIA+ advocates to ensure the hubs are safe, welcoming, and empowering for all.

Our model emphasizes collaborative, integrated care. We break down silos by co-locating services under one roof, sharing information (with consent), and forming care teams that include professionals from mental health, primary care, education, housing, employment, and more. This ensures youth receive coordinated, whole-person care without needing to navigate multiple systems.

Technology plays a powerful role in expanding access and personalizing care. At our hubs, we're using measurement-based care tools to track outcomes and adapt services to each youth’s unique needs over time. This means youth and providers work together to monitor progress, set goals, and make informed care decisions. We’ve also integrated telehealth options, digital intake and assessment tools, and we’re exploring secure messaging platforms—all designed to meet youth where they are, whether that's online, on their phone, or in-person. Privacy, digital literacy, and youth consent are top priorities, ensuring that technology is empowering and safe.

Continuous evaluation is core to our model. We’ll track outcomes like service access, mental health improvements, school or work engagement, and youth satisfaction. We also use youth-led evaluation methods and work with Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario, academic and community partners to evaluate gaps and emerging trends to build a strong evidence base and adapt based on feedback.

One major challenge is navigating service gaps and resource limitations in rural areas. We’re addressing this by leveraging community partnerships, advocating for sustainable funding, using flexible service delivery models (like mobile or virtual care), and staying deeply connected to community needs.

While the hubs are youth-focused and empower young people to direct their own care, we also engage families when appropriate and welcome caregiver involvement. We provide education, support, and family-sensitive services that help strengthen youth well-being within their broader support networks.

The Well Community Collective and the Well Youth Hubs are closely aligned with YWHO’s provincial framework. We're implementing their evidence-based pillars, such as integrated services, youth engagement, and low-barrier access while tailoring the approach to the realities and strengths of Bruce, Grey, Huron and Perth Counties.

Great question—and actually, quite the opposite. The Well Community Collective and the upcoming Well Youth Hubs are designed to enhance, not compete with, existing services. We're working hand-in-hand with local youth-serving organizations to create a collaborative ecosystem that improves coordination, strengthens referral pathways, and reduces the burden on overstretched agencies.

By offering low-barrier, upstream supports—like drop-in mental health check-ins, peer support, and wellness programming—we help catch youth before issues escalate, freeing up specialized services to focus on more acute or intensive needs.

We're not duplicating what's already working—we're filling the gaps, bridging systems, and inviting community partners to co-design the hubs with us. This model is about shared leadership, not siloed efforts. Many local organizations are already at the table helping shape services, ensuring that what we build reflects the community’s collective strengths and needs.