Thank you.
I'd like to commend absolutely the work that all of you do. It's completely valuable and very important to Canada, obviously, and incredibly important for the future of Canada. I just wanted to say that to begin with.
I need you to know that I have been a foster mother for 18 years, and have raised seven children in my own home from the downtown eastside, from refugee camps overseas, etc. So in terms of working with teenagers and youth, having been a native youth counsellor in the downtown eastside of Vancouver as well, I'm quite familiar with those issues. In addition to that, I'm a stepmother and also a mother of twins who are 14.
I've lived through it personally, then, in terms of raising children, and also as a professional—I'm a sociologist, and I've developed programs, etc., in this area—as well as sitting on the board of the YWCA and helping establish the longest-running breakfast program in Canada, etc., in the downtown eastside.
I'm laying all that out as a foundation for my questions, which you may find a little challenging. I'm not wanting to be challenging, but I'm wanting to push you a little bit because of your expertise in this area. We're here, obviously, to try to get from you as much information and ideas, etc., as possible. So I want to just give you that as a backdrop.
Number one, there's been a incredible amount of work done by the Resilience Research Centre in Halifax, and I'm wondering, Ms. Crooks, if you've heard about that. As well, what kinds of studies have interlinked young girls with the Resilience Centre, and how can we blend that kind of research with programs?