YooMagazine.net is an interactive health literacy program (www.yoomagazine.net) designed for young people, parents and teachers. The goal of the program is to improve health literacy and decision making in young people and to assist schools in better understanding and monitoring the health and mental health needs of their students. This program serves young people and schools throughout the province of Ontario and it has been exported to schools throughout Canada – just recently to 25 schools in the US. I would like to make this resource available to every student, parent and teacher in Ontario.

This program is one of a kind.  As a resource, the program functions as a “broker” of high quality information presented in a variety of interactive formats (info sheets, Q&As, quizzes, magazine articles, etc.), written in a youth friendly format that can be customized to the individual needs of local schools and youth groups.  However, the resource also functions as a learning tool – for both students and school administrators.  Our anonymous on-line surveys enable teachers to monitor attitudes towards various health topics prior to teaching a lesson and to assess knowledge uptake after completing a lesson.  eLearning modules work to increase student engagement and extend learning beyond the classroom. This approach has allowed experts from across Canada and now the US to work collaboratively within a shared infrastructure that is youth friendly, and has the capacity to be offered in different languages. We can also administer anonymous on-line surveys throughout the school year. When completed annually these surveys serve as a snapshot of student health and mental needs, stigma, school climate and motivation for learning, but can also be used to examine the effectiveness of local bullying initiatives.