Lillian Fleuret survived a traumatic event and was brave enough to share her story with police. She is now encouraging others to do the same. “I was eight, I think, and it’s scary because I was in a room. There’s cameras. There’s a person behind like typing out what I was saying. It’s a lot to deal with,” Fleuret said. She is now a teenager and is glad she said something. When she heard about a 13-year-old girl that was victimized by a 15-year-old boy (charged Thursday by Windsor Police in connection with a child exploitation and sextortion investigation), this was her thought. “It takes courage,” she said. “The boy threatening her with intimate photos of her, I cannot even begin to imaging how hard that could be.” Fleuret was part of a panel hosted by the Windsor-Essex Child Youth Advocacy Centre focusing on the realities children and youth face when they experience harm, seek help, and move through the system. The support they receive, some feel, takes longer than it should. “Together we need to highlight this and get better support for children and youth,” said Dr. Nila Das, executive director of the Windsor Essex Child/Youth Advocacy Centre. “I can go walk into a primary care physician and say I have a cold and get some treatment. Why can’t we do it for mental health? Why do I have to be high risk and suicidal?” Part of the conversation addressed why youth don’t use the supports offered by the stakeholders that were in attendance for the workshop. Some of the answers included too many resources and an unwillingness to continue sharing their traumatic event multiple times. Another reason is the youth feel like a case number and not real people when they are asking for help. “For me the message was very clear today with our WECYC partners in that the realities of that they face today, they can’t do it alone. Families can’t do it alone and nor can one organization do it alone,” said Nicole Sbrocca, CEO of Canadian Mental Health Association Windsor-Essex. The room heard from Trina Das, a university student who focused on the digital era and how the older generations don’t fully understand today’s generation. “It is the world we live in now so I think the best thing that adults can do is learn to navigate it properly and teach young people to do the same thing.” Stakeholders like the CMHA say they are thankful for discussions like this and are better because of it. “We are all here to support. We are all in this together. The message to our youth is: Arrive anywhere and the collective is here to support you,” Sbrocca said.
