I'll give you a broad answer first, and then I trust that the folks to my right can answer in more specific terms.
The broad answer is that the challenge for those of us who are service providers in the community is, on a daily basis, one of funding. One of my biggest frustrations and biggest points of bewilderment is trying to get the message through about the importance of the federal government to understand its working nature with provincial governments and the desire to strike funding formulas that have a long-term view.
That's the answer I give you as a starting point on this issue. In order to get where we need to be, in general relationships with our youth and specifically with those who have mental health issues, that is often a longer road. In order to travel that road, governments need to be able to partner with NGOs that are secure in their day-to-day operations.
Increasingly, when funding is based on a specific initiative, or the funding is project-based or short term, and then the project may or may not get renewed, it really ties our hands in terms of what we can do, both by way of immediate and day-to-day service delivery and also by way of thinking in very innovative terms about longer-term solutions.
It's a real problem in terms of our ability to establish and maintain the relationships that we need to have with, in our case at Phoenix, the kids whom we're very privileged to get to know.
I hope that we can start the discussion there, then, on the importance of understanding that, in the absence of that kind of security, it could lead to organizations becoming fairly risk-averse around what they are prepared to take on. It's been our experience, and the literature often reflects it, that the most innovative work is the work that involves a certain level of risk and a certain level of mobility--that is exactly why this community is so excited about the piece that the north end clinic is doing through Patti--so that we are able to go out and meet folks where they are and address their needs in the way that they're identifying they need to be addressed.
I'll turn it over to Sharon and to Patti to answer in more specific terms, but I guess what I want to say to you is that the starting point for that really ties into....
The outreach piece that Patti's now doing is a fine example. That was years in the making. While that was developing--much to the credit of all the front line folks who were involved in it--there were folks who were really suffering and really needed support. One of the things that I hope your committee looks at is the funding model around how you bring fortitude to the very partners who are your essential and key partners on the community side working with government going forward. It's a major consideration, and one that we're a long time getting to in Canada.