Research: Roots & Resilience: Métis Youth-Centered Vaping Cessation Strategy

Youth vaping is a growing concern for lung health in Saskatchewan. While more young people are experiencing nicotine addiction through vaping, there is currently no widely accepted or implemented vaping cessation strategy in the province.

In her project titled Roots & Resilience: Métis Youth-Centered Vaping Cessation Strategy, Hayley Pelletier, a PhD Fellow at the University of Saskatchewan, will work with Lung Saskatchewan to develop an evidence-based vaping cessation strategy to help reduce youth vaping rates among Indigenous youth in Saskatchewan.

This work will build on existing relationships with Métis Nation–Saskatchewan and will focus on co-developing, piloting, and evaluating an intervention that is culturally grounded, community-informed, and rooted in a Two-Eyed Seeing approach. By bringing together Indigenous and Western ways of knowing, the project aims to support a vaping cessation strategy that is meaningful, practical, and responsive to the needs of Métis youth and communities.

Hayley’s work is supported through the 2025 Health System Impact Fellowship Program, which embeds emerging health researchers within health system and community organizations to help address real-world challenges. Lung Saskatchewan is proud to serve as the host partner organization for this fellowship and to support research that advances youth lung health, Indigenous health, and nicotine addiction prevention in Saskatchewan.