
HeART- Mental Wellness Programming for Youth
HeART is a mental wellness art program for youth across Nova Scotia, Canada. HeART combines art and creative expression with tangible mental health coping skills. To help youth cope with everyday stress they experience. Each week a group of ten young people aged 10 to 16 come together for a two-hour session. In the two hour sessions, the group builds community, creates art, practices mindfulness, and develops leadership skills.
In the Spring of 2019, the community began calling for the program to be offered in schools to support the current health curriculum. HeART was adapted into a 90-minute session which could be lead in Schools across Nova Scotia. Removing transportation barriers youth faced to attend the weekly sessions. Since then HeART has been offered in 6 schools.
Since the beginning of the program in January 2019, over 200 youth from across Nova Scotia have been impacted. In weekly sessions, and in school-based programming.
HeART was created by a Rover Scout from the 36th Halifax Scout Group as a part of their Scouts of the World Award.