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Carissa Konesky

Burnaby, BC

Carissa Konesky (she/her) is a passionate advocate for youth mental health and resilience. During the day, she works at a non-profit as a Fundraiser. Her biggest passion is volunteering and working with Girl Guides. She has taken on many volunteer projects supporting youth mental health and has spoken to hundreds of youth across the country. Carissa has also designed a workshop on body image for youth ages 9-11 and run several online workshop series using Rising Youth, Sprout Ideas Fellowship and Passion to Purpose grants.

I Care for Me 2.0

In 2023, the “I Care for Me” program ran a series of three workshops focused on resilience, dealing with failure, and body image. This project was aimed at youth aged 9-11.

https://shevalesco.ca/i-care-for-me/

About this Project

Communities Served

My project will involve and/or impact the following communities:

  • LGBTQ2+ Community members
  • Racial or visible minorities
  • At risk youth & children

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

When it comes to community impact projects, the UN has created 17 Sustainable Development Goals. These are the Sustainable Development Goals associated with my project.

  • SDG 5: Gender equality

How the project works

Three workshops were delivered for I Care for Me 2.0 themed around assertive communication, boundary setting, and self-care. The workshops were hosted through the Thinkific Platform. People who signed up were given free access and could either stream the workshops or download them. Once they completed the program they had the opportunity to print certificates and receive completion crests. Participants could do the workshops in a group or individually.

Project Impact

Recording the workshops was a lot of work but the positive feedback and number of youth signing up suggested there was a lot of value in the I Care for Me 2.0 project. The workshops topics are not often taught to youth in other environments and this project filled a critical need.

Project Mission

To provide accessibility to workshops regarding resilience and well-being for youth across Canada. There are many factors that limit access to mental health education, including distance, lack of resources, and lack of internet. I Care for Me is trying to bridge that gap and provide the opportunity for as many youth as possible.

Project Team

The I Care for Me program is an entirely youth-lead project. It is run by female-identified youth in Vancouver.