A youth mental wellness project created by Enactus Waterloo, a partner of the GreenHouse social impact incubator at St. Paul’s University College, has been awarded a $5,000 grant from The Co-operators Youth Mental Wellness Grant Program.
The project entitled Link is a student-developed platform, which addresses the need for community and social connectedness of first-year university students. The Enactus Waterloo team project rose above 29 other applicants to win one of seven grants from the program. This student-led group, part of the larger Enactus Canada, will receive mentorship from GreenHouse director, Tania Del Matto throughout project development.
“We have really enjoyed partnering with GreenHouse,” said Tristan Jagan, Enactus Waterloo president. “Tania has been great for helping us come up with ideas on how to support students through Link.”
Through the program, the Enactus Waterloo team will be running a yearlong pilot project, using a Facebook group to determine its viability and to identify the needs of new students. The Facebook group invites first-year students to join, get connected with their peers and learn about campus resources from upper-year students.
“Receiving the grant is a very exciting opportunity for us,” said Jagan. “This is our first accelerator backed project and it gives us a lot of confidence in pursuing our ideas.”
Enactus Waterloo started developing Link at the end of fall term 2019, to create a platform where students could connect online to meetup in-person and participate in a shared interest. But since then, COVID-19 has shifted its objective to provide an opportunity for students to connect and build a community online during a pandemic.
“We're hoping Link becomes a centralized platform for new students to learn about on-campus clubs and resources,” said Jagan. “As upper-year students, we have the experience to help students transition to university and support them in managing their time while participating in online learning.”
Enactus Waterloo plans to use the funding for Link to transition to a more robust platform in fall 2021, after the yearlong pilot program.
If you are a first-year student looking to connect with your peers, join Link.