Getting to Know New Wave Connections!

Hey everyone!

Thank you so much for checking out our blog! We are so excited to be running this initiative and love all the support and participation we’ve gotten so far. As an extension of our instagram posts, this blog will cover everything from our new events to how you can become a more engaged member of your community and school to better your mental health! As we always say, catch the wave and join us on our journey of continuous discovery, improved social connections and mental wellbeing.

So, who are we? Well, New Wave Connections was created as a HOSA project by me and my friends Thendral and Simran. We wanted to do something like this for a while (create a youth organization), but didn’t want to follow the status quo and just cover one topic. We wanted to help kids volunteer, become environmental stewards, peer mentors and more. HOSA’s Mental Health Promotion event helped us focus our ideas into one single topic. Improving youth engagement and connections. You might be wondering, how do connections and engagement tie into mental health? Well, our mental health is wrapped up with our social life. We know external factors often have the largest impact on our mental wellbeing. People impact other people! But, we also know that a lack of people also impacts other people. COVID-19 took away a good two years of connection from many of us, not just in Canada, but all around the world. This not only caused high rates of depression and anxiety, but sadly led to an increase in youth crime rates and delinquency. Why? Well, with almost everything being done online, from grocery shopping to school, we spent a lot more time on devices than talking with people. In came increased anxiety in situations where you actually had to interact with people, and an inexplicable sadness and longing for connection that was hard to diagnose. So, more young people retreated into the rabbit hole that is social media and lost many valuable social skills at a critical time for development in their lives. Ever heard that phrase, “You use it or you lose it,”? Well, we’re here to help you get it back. New Wave Connections is committed to educating youth about improving mental wellbeing and combating the continuous feeling of isolation many of us feel by creating and supporting opportunities for engagement and connections in our school and community as well as yours. But, we need your help. Connection requires commitment and we need that from you as we grow and make our communities stronger together. At New Wave, we believe in the ripple effect, and the power of others to make a positive impact on society. We know together, we can make waves. Big ones too. 

So, are you ready to catch the wave?

Kiersten Scott-Gibson

Co-founder of New Wave Connections