Are you starting university or college this fall?
Youth Forum is CHEO's youth advisory council. Our mission is to promote and support the voices of youth across CHEO. The group meets one evening per month throughout the school year.
Membership
Membership consists of:
- 8-12 youth between ages of 12-18
- Efforts are made to reflect the diversity of CHEO's patients including culture, gender, age, medical background, area of residence and CHEO experiences.
- Members must have experience with CHEO's services as either a patient or as a sibling of a frequent patient.
- The group is supported by 2 Resource Staff.
Meet some of our current and former members
Goals
Youth Forum's goals include:
- providing input and advice from a youth perspective on hospital programs, services, policies and planning
- promoting a youth friendly environment across the organization
- educating staff and physicians to ensure the best experience for youth at CHEO
- working with the Family Advisory Council to create a strong patient and family voice within CHEO
- providing an opportunity for youth to participate in special projects and events
- providing opportunities for youth to develop teamwork and leadership skills
- to learn and have fun!
How to join
Are you between the ages of 12 and 18? Do you have experiences at CHEO as a patient, former patient or sibling? Would you like to help staff and physicians make changes to CHEO by sharing your experiences? Then Youth Forum might be the thing for you. The meetings are monthly and held after school for an hour and a half. Youth Forum takes on creative projects with the goal of making the hospital more teen-friendly. CHEO provides a meal, bus tickets to get here, high school volunteer hour credits and a reference. If you're ready to make a one year commitment to attend the meetings and have some fun, please complete our application form:
For more information, please contact us at youth@cheo.on.ca.
Youth Forum Scholarship
Youth Forum is launching its fifth annual Youth Forum Scholarship. This financial award of $500 will be granted to a maximum of two CHEO youth who will be enrolling in their first year at an accredited college or university in fall 2025. This award is funded by Youth Forum’s Youth Friendly Grant Program.
Applicants must:
- Be a CHEO Youth. A CHEO Youth is defined as one of the following:
- CHEO youth volunteer
- Youth Forum member
- YouthNet volunteer
- Current or former CHEO patient, or
- Sibling of a current or former CHEO patient
- Be entering their first year of an accredited college or university program in Fall 2025
Application deadline is July 4, 2025.