Chair: Shirley Thompson, University of Manitoba

Increasing Accessibility to Mental Health Services: Findings from an Impact Assessment of a Social Enterprise
Aaron Turpin, University of Toronto; Micheal L. Shier, University of Toronto; Kate Scowen, Hard Feelings Mental Health

This paper presentation reports on findings from a mixed-methods impact assessment of a social enterprise seeking to reduce barriers to mental health services in Toronto, Ontario. Results highlight opportunities and challenges associated with implementing a novel approach that utilizes a for-profit retail business to provide reduced-cost mental health counselling services for economically disadvantaged groups. Findings from this study will be used to discuss how similar approaches may be utilized to strengthen mental health interventions that adopt a social enterprise model.

What active role can postsecondary education take to reconcile the First Nation housing crisis and youth employment crisis?
Shirley Thompson, University of Manitoba

Postsecondary education that builds students capacity and culturally appropriate homes can help solve the housing crisis on reserves. The Mino Bimaadiziwin partnership is funding 30 local students in Wasagamack and Garden Hill First Nations to design and build homes, learning from a team of builders, architects and engineers. A survey shows these programs are making a difference. To scale these programs up and out requires that the same public post-secondary education funding programs off-reserve be available on-reserve. The current fee-for-service post-secondary education funding model applied to reserves results in 5 to 10 x the price for post-secondary education, creating barriers to community development and to educational attainment.