I can utilize my position in Prince Rupert. In Prince Rupert, I work with youth at risk in the friendship house. One thing we find as an obstacle to maintaining that connectedness is that the youth who utilize our drop-in are the social group. Within themselves, they're their own social group. Most of these youth attend an alternative school because they see the mainstream high school as being an unsafe place for them to receive their education. These youth who attend our drop-in, within their social group, also tend to date within their social group. When we have these individuals who are dating within this social group, ranging from 13 to 18 years of age, we see some obstacles. One of those obstacles is that if the relationship goes bad, we lose that individual because they don't want to come back to the drop-in. They don't want to come back and be in the vicinity of someone they've had a falling out with. It's hard to bring them back in. That reduces the connectivity they have with the individuals around them.
When it comes to small, isolated communities, you don't necessarily have the same kinds of options as larger urban centres. Prince Rupert is a small town. The graduation class is small. These are the people you have known all your life. If something were to go awry and there was no area for that youth to turn to for that support, that youth could be seen as a youth at risk, or potentially a youth at risk.
When we look at individuals who are missing those supports, those are the individuals we need to be gearing ourselves to. We need to be increasing those supports for youth. We need to be increasing the ability of communities across our nation to address these kinds of issues.