Status of Women committee  We've been involved with the project, Shift, being done by the YWCA. I know that they were in last week. After hearing from East Prince, it's clear that we're all really at the beginning of our understanding of this. Ongoing support for research, and research plus action, like this particular project stream, is really important.

Status of Women committee  I don't have exact stats in terms of women who identify that they've experienced cyber-violence and their access to mental health services. In general, I would say that young people don't have access to the mental health support they need. It doesn't matter whether you're in a large urban centre or in a rural area in Canada, access to services remains a huge issue.

Status of Women committee  I can start. We will benefit from core funding for two and a half more years, which has allowed us to build an online site where organizations can go and figure out how they might increase the use of evidence or the use of evaluation in their work and in their services. That is an extremely privileged position in the child and youth services sector.

Status of Women committee  Alicia and I were talking a bit about the fact that we are all learning how to be online together. There's a whole spectrum of behaviour online that ranges from hopefully appropriate to degrees of inappropriateness. People's interactions with each other are often not appropriate, and there is a line where it becomes violence and requires a different response.

Status of Women committee  I think the main point I would add is that one of the things I've learned through this network and through working with Alicia and other mental health advocates is the need for youth to be leading a lot of these initiatives and to be part of the creation. If I have learned anything, it's that although I consider myself quite astute online, I actually can't keep up with where young people are.

Status of Women committee  I actually don't have mine on me.

Status of Women committee  Just to summarize the last point, we looked at how vulnerable young people seek help for their mental health. Really, stigma and self-stigma continue to be strong barriers. We feel that young women exposed to or experiencing cyber-violence would have increased feelings of self-stigma and stigma in terms of seeking help for that issue.

Status of Women committee  Great. Thank you so much. Honourable members, fellow presenters, and parliamentary staff, thank you so much for welcoming us today. On behalf of the Children and Youth in Challenging Contexts Network, we'd like to highlight the particular challenges faced by vulnerable young women in Canada with regard to facing violence, cyber-violence, and supporting their mental health, and also illustrate the realities faced by informal community-based services that are often on the front lines of providing services to marginalized young women.