The Impakt Foundation for Social Change is partnering with Trails Youth Initiative and Human-Nature Counselling Society to pilot a nature-based mental health certification program for job seeking newcomers and their families in Canada, which has started this spring.

Through a combination of online sessions and in-person events, this program fosters a community of newcomers in similar situations to share their past experiences, their present circumstances, and their hopes and fears for the future with each other. In addition to building a support network for our participants, this program teaches key techniques to help combat negative mental health, which is especially important for those in a completely new country and without fulfilling employment opportunities.

This program also bolsters the Impakt Foundation's mission to create employment pathways for newcomers, as our participants can tap into the professional networks of other newcomer participants as well as the professional network of the Impakt Foundation for Social Change.

Our first phase of the program culminated in a three-day camping excursion administered by Trails Youth Initiatives! This was an incredible experience for our participants, not only because of the amazing activities and nature which surrounded them, but also because it gave them the opportunity to genuinely have fun and be in the moment rather then being in the nearly constant state of anxiety which many recent newcomers in Canada unfortunately experience due to barriers to employment and housing. Many of our participants said after our weekend excursion that this was one of the best experiences they’ve had in Canada.