Thank you for the question. I believe there are actually more youth who are interested in speaking up and working toward better mental health, but there's a kind of barrier where we're not always trusted to make our own decisions or make our own choices regarding the issue. That's scary for a lot of teens. I was lucky enough to find an organization that was ready to listen to my voice and accompany me during my process, but not all teens or youth have that opportunity or that luck.
That's something we should definitely work on in order to harness the full power of youth engagement. If it's too much of an effort to actually stand up for yourself...because sometimes that might be a little bit difficult, especially if you have mental health issues like a lot of youth who advocate for mental health have. For example, with my own anxiety, it was very hard to reach out to an organization or just be in the group and talk about it, because I was so anxious in every way and everywhere. Having a place that feels safe would definitely help regarding youth engagement.
I think the young Canadians' parliament that we're working on exists for this very purpose. Every young girl, every young boy and every youth work together with the government to find solutions and protect our rights, because we're ready and we want to make a change.
Thank you.