Status of Women committee  Any information that we provide to our youth we provide to the parents. We offer them outside programming, their own workshops or groups to come in and speak about the stuff they're hearing from the kids and to speak about their concerns and issues. Through BGC Canada, that's where a lot of our advocacy work has been very much focused on getting the messaging across the country on ways to prevent to ensure that kids continue to strive and thrive.

Status of Women committee  I'll say a bit, but I'll leave most of the time for Tim to speak on it. We have a fantastic relationship with our national body, BGC Canada, which does a lot of the higher-level advocating on this process. They've been in conversation with many leaders across the provinces to ensure that, when there's funding availability, it flows through the national board so that the organizations below—in our case, as a federation model—in the right communities are getting the right kind of funding and access to resources.

Status of Women committee  It's very important that we all work together. I know everyone uses the line, but we're truly working together. We need to make sure that the language and the lessons that are being taught in school are being echoed at BGC, or the Boys and Girls Club. We want to make sure, for children and youth, that there's no misinterpretation and there's no confusion over the messaging.

Status of Women committee  There definitely needs to be be a deeper look into protection and the way that stats and information are being used by and shared with the children and youth who are on there. I say “children”, because we know that there are kids under the age of 13 who are finding ways onto the social media platforms.

Status of Women committee  We are at that level. We make it an intention to be on those levels. Not only are we helping to provide them with guidance and information through that, we are able to monitor what the traffic is on there. As we see things coming up, we are able to take it back into program and bring up those issues directly to help advocate, but also to help keep the youth informed through our family program.

Status of Women committee  From our level of interaction, I can see where that would be, because we have heard that. However, directly from our kids, it's about not wanting to hurt mom and/or dad. In our cases, we do have a variety of children who are dealing with parental alienation issues. They're afraid that, if they say something to dad or to mom, the other parent might get mad at them, and they might get in trouble for that.

Status of Women committee  Thank you, Sonia, for that question. One of the biggest things we need to do is to start listening to our youth about what they want and provide them with an opportunity to have their voices heard, not just through BGC but throughout Canada. We provide opportunities for peer-to-peer development and peer-to-peer mentoring and training, so they have a comfortable outlet in which to talk.

Status of Women committee  To an earlier point, it's prevention. It's not just through organizations like BGC. It needs to start within our school boards. It needs to start within our overall community engagement and in how we speak to the children about their value and what they bring to society. Talk to the kids about their passions.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for that question. I agree that it is all about communicating with them at an early stage. I will get to your question on social media, but first, it's very important that we acknowledge them and that we identify to them that they have support here for everything they're looking for.

Status of Women committee  In my opinion, they shouldn't be on it under 16. To be honest, we need more federal safeguards protecting them. At the end of the day, to Tim's point, I love the work that our field police do, but if it's getting to that point, then we've already lost control of the situation.

Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  Thank you very much. Good afternoon, Chair, vice-chairs and members. Thank you for inviting me on behalf of my organization, BGC Peel, formerly the Boys and Girls Club, and a federation partner with BGC Canada, to present a local, grassroots look at intimate partner and domestic violence across, in our case, the city of Brampton and region of Peel, especially for those in the marginalized and vulnerable communities that we serve.