Leanne Boyd
We are proud to announce that Leanne Boyd, BSW, MSW, RSW, will be honoured with the 2024 Magis Award for Ingenuity and Innovation. Boyd is a distinguished figure in the mental health and community service community. Her life's work highlights her compassion and deep commitment to mental well-being and transformative community engagement.
Boyd was inspired by her father, Walter N. Boyd, a 1948 University of Manitoba social work grad, whose life-long career in government was dedicated to developing and implementing policies, programs and community relationships built on the fundamental importance of the ability in disability. Growing up in an environment that emphasized faith-based and ability-focused approaches to health and social issues, she witnessed first-hand acts of compassion and understanding.
This laid the foundation for Boyd's understanding of disability and her dedication to social justice, inclusion, equity, and human rights for everyone, as well as celebrating people's strengths and dreams.
Boyd's interest in mental health grew, and in grade nine at St. Mary's Academy, she won a Canadian Mental Health Association essay competition for her submission "Mental Health is Everybody's Business." Through high school, she pursued her passion with volunteer work at the Canadian Mental Health Association, Open Door Club, St. John Bosco Centre, Stony Mountain Penitentiary, and cofounded the Sunday Drop-In at Immaculate Conception Church. She and her two partners walked the Main Street strip by the CP station every Saturday night, inviting those who were interested in a free lunch/gathering at the church on Sunday. This initiative continued as a grassroots approach for many years and eventually evolved into a sustained community effort and lasting social change, supported on a rotating basis by various faith communities across Winnipeg.
In 1969, Boyd enrolled at St. Paul College, University of Manitoba, in the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) program, seeking a faith-based education that aligned with her values. Her qualifications grew to include a Master of Social Work (MSW), an Advanced Certificate in Community Child Psychiatry, and extensive experience in the mental health and illness field.
A trailblazer in transforming mental health services, Boyd played a pivotal role in the design, construction, staffing, and implementation of the Manitoba Adolescent Treatment Centre, a groundbreaking, provincial psychiatric hospital for youth.
From 1982–to 2022, Leanne was the Manitoba lead/co-lead for innovative research and policy/program development for child and youth mental health, through various federal/provincial/territorial committees, such as the Canadian Institute of Health Research, Mental Health Commission of Canada Child and Youth Institute, by invitation only, professional think tanks, such as the Canadian Institute of Applied Research, the International Mental Health Summit 2012 hosted in Manitoba by the Premier and Healthy Child Committee of Cabinet as part of the Canadian Council of the Federation, comprising all provincial/territorial premiers. Leanne's career included numerous prestigious speaking engagements across Canada and joint publications of collective new research learnings, leading to a new understanding of community-driven policy, program and community-led implementation, and the importance of measuring and monitoring outcome-based interventions to build positive mental health trajectories.
In the mid-90s, Leanne was the co-creator of a unique provincial governance model, the Children and Youth Secretariat, later Healthy Child Manitoba, led by successive premiers/political parties. It was legislated under the HealthyChild Committee of Cabinet and comprised all ministers and departments which impacted children. Directed by scientific evidence, it operates under a cross-departmental staffing model, horizontal policy decision-making, considering the whole child /youth, in partnership with family and community. This innovative model of policies, programs, funding structures, research and evaluation has resulted in improved outcomes over 25 years for thousands of children/youth, families and communities across Manitoba.
Healthy Child Manitoba, with its cross-departmental staffing model, bridged the community and the political, provided an "incubator" to innovate - test, implement and evaluate the efficacy of proposed policies, programs and approaches purported to improve the proximal and life-long outcomes for children and youth. Building on its cross-departmental structure, it forged partnerships with Indigenous governments and communities, researchers and many sectors, including local school boards, communities, foundations, and corporate entities. Governments across Canada and England were interested in Manitoba's non-siloed approach, considering the power of this research and the improved understanding of child and youth mental health trajectories.
Over her career, Boyd has worn many hats: clinician, policymaker, innovator, community developer, instructor, director, mentor, researcher, public speaker and advocate. Her lifelong dedication to mental health and compassionate community service has helped individuals and communities alike.
Boyd is an innovator who has been recognized with several prestigious awards, including the Marian Award for Excellence, Macdonald Youth Services Award for Community Service Prix Ronald-Duhamel – Ronald Duhamel Award, a joint initiative of the Société de la francophonie manitobaine, the Federal Network of Official Languages in Manitoba, the French-Language Secretariat and the Association of Bilingual Municipalities of Manitoba, and the Manitoba 150 (1871–2021] Trailblazer Award.
Leanne is a visionary, a risk-taker, a transformative thinker and doer, and a woman of deep faith, integrity, and passion. She has dedicated her 55 years of public service and volunteer work to increase equity, social justice, and well-being for all; closest to her heart are the children/youth and their journey to mino-pimatisiwin, the good life.
