About

As someone who comes from a white, middle class family I was pretty fortunate to always have someone to talk to, or access to the proper resources I needed to help me succeed. Besides the occasional moody period or argument with my parents, my adolescent years were pretty smooth. I didn’t deal with the same stress lower income adolescents dealt with.

I didn’t struggle with mental health, I didn’t know what cocaine addictions were, my parents always helped me with homework when I needed, and I could always access my family doctor whenever I needed. I did however notice that my peers were facing issues I wasn’t familiar with.

My peers who came from immigrant, racialized or lower income families lived with issues of drug addiction, teenage pregnancy, depression and other mental illnesses, just to name a few. I can recall one girl in a few of my high school classes who went down a difficult path. Her home life was not stable and she resorted to smoking and drugs in order to let out her anger and frustration. She is still living that same lifestyle. I believe that if she was given local resources to talk about her problems and express herself she would have been a lot more successful.

Looking at our current Toronto population I can recognize that many immigrant, racialized and lower income youth are coping with the same issues as my own high school peer did. Youth at the school I am placed at are incredibly stressed by school, family life, relationships and their own personal identity. They speak to their teachers, but the teachers just pass them off to guidance counsellors. There is a disconnect between students, teachers, guidance counsellors and resource centres. Hopefully this website can fix the disconnect and encourage students and youth to find the professional help they need.

Life is stressful, developing and figuring out one’s own self is even more stressful. Doing it alone is scary, but doing it with a support system removes the fear. The resources connected to this website are specific for adolescents and emerging adults. The resources cover mental health, after school programming and homework help, teen pregnancy, drug use and abuse, and healthcare. The list does not cover all the issues an adolescent may experience, but they provide as much help as possible.

Like the title of the website says the resources are Here For You and want adolescents to succeed.