Panelists
Sam Fiorella - The Friendship Bench
SAM FIORELLA - GUEST SPEAKER
Sam Fiorella started The Lucas Fiorella Friendship Bench, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to connecting more students to available mental health resources on Canadian campuses, after losing his teenaged son to depression three years ago. Through the #yellowisforhello campaign, Sam has travelled to secondary and post-secondary schools across Canada speaking to tens of thousands of students and parents, advocating for - and encouraging - more honest conversations about mental health among peers and between students and their parents. The campaigns iconic yellow Friendship Benches and associated #YellowIsForHello campaign are now installed at over 35 schools across the country, with new campaigns launching each month. As a survivor sharing lived experience, Sam is a highly sought after speaker and advocate among parents and students on the subject of mental health, an effort that has earned him this year's Canadian Mental Health Association's 150 Difference Makers Award.
Contact Information: https://thefriendshipbench.org/contact/
If you would like to donate to The Friendship Bench please visit https://thefriendshipbench.org/donate-to-the-friendship-bench/
GUEST PANELISTS
Lisa Wood - Canadian Mental Health Association York Region
LISA WOOD - CHOICES PROGRAM COORDINATOR, CMHA
Lisa Wood has been with the Canadian Mental Health Association York Region for over 15 years. Lisa is the Program Coordinator for the Choices program, an early intervention substance program for youth in grades 7-12. Lisa’s greatest passion is listening to our kids and giving them the tools to navigate through their teen years, healthy and happy. Lisa’s educational background includes a range of professional enhancement courses and a B.A. in Psychology. For the past 6 years, Lisa has taken on the role of a Volunteer Lead in CMHA’s annual Mental Health in Motion, a community fundraising event for local youth mental health. Lisa is a parent of a young adult daughter and a teenage son. Lisa highly values taking care of herself, both mentally and physically and tells herself, "It’s okay to take care of yourself" and shares this with other parents that she meets along the way.
Contact Information: 905-252-9121 or lwood@cmha-yr.on.ca
If you would like to donate to the CMHA please visit https://app.etapestry.com/onlineforms/CanadianMentalHealthAssociati_1/donationonline.html
Rosalinda Ceci - Mental Health Nurse, Humber River Hospital
ROSALINDA CECI - MENTAL HEALTH R.N. - HUMBER RIVER HOSPITAL
Rosalinda has been a mental health nurse for 18 years. She has a Masters degree in nursing and is a certified psychiatric mental health nurse with the Canadian Mental Health Association. Most of her experience has been working in adolescent mental health at the Sick Kids Centre for Community Mental Health (formerly the Hincks Dellcrest Centre) in Toronto. She was a volunteer nurse with the Sherbourne Health bus, providing medical care and basic hygiene supplies to marginalized people in downtown Toronto. She is currently a Nurse Clinician at Humber River Hospital, providing mental health assessments, consultation, and staff coaching. She is also a part time instructor for the community mental health program with Herzing College. Rosalinda has experience running various groups, such as CBT based groups, structured relapse prevention, and self esteem groups, as well as various methods of counselling including Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and Motivational Interviewing.
Contact Information: rceci@hrh.ca
If you would like to donate to the Humber River Hospital Foundation please visit www.hrhfoundation.ca
Michelle Peek - Art Not Shame
MICHELLE PEEK - CO-FOUNDER OF ART NOT SHAME
Art Not Shame offers tools and programming for youth to express mental health challenges through collaborative art‐making and storytelling. Art Not Shame hosts workshops in partnership with schools, local organizations, and community health programs. Spearheaded by Michelle Peek, Art Not Shame is supported by a strong team of advisors in the fields of mental health, art-based community making, and education in formal secondary, post-secondary, and community-based contexts. Michelle has been involved in mental health advocacy work from the time she lost her brother to suicide 20 years ago. Having witnessed and experienced the negative effects of shame on a person's well‐being, and given how ubiquitous shame is in so many struggles young people face today from perfectionism to body image to bullying, Michelle feels passionately about providing a space where young people are given the tools they need to create in a supportive community.
Contact Information: info@artnotshame.org
To see what we got up to in our first year, visit: https://www.artnotshameannualreport.org/
If you would like to donate to Art Not Shame please visit https://www.artnotshame.com/donate/
Constable Stephanie Liddell - York Regional Police: Community Services
CONSTABLE STEPHANIE LIDDELL - YORK REGIONAL POLICE
Police Constable Stephanie Liddell has been with York Regional Police since 2009. She is currently a School Resource Officer in the Community Services Unit working with youth in high schools and has also been working with the YRP Mental Health Support Team for the past 5 years. Working in Mental Health with a special focus on youth has been of great importance and learning for the past 25 years. PC Liddell was previously a Child and Youth Worker, working in Group Homes and Homeless Shelters in Toronto and also worked at the YRDSB and York Region Childrens’ Aid. PC Liddell is able to speak to youth, their parents and the schools giving a different perspective and knowledge base about the opportunities and challenges that come with being a youth in today’s society from the police point of view.
Contact Information: 1980@yrp.ca