THUNDER BAY — A provincial grant is enhancing mental health programming to create a safe space for the local skateboard community.
The Female Boarder Collective and Cinema 5 Skatepark received a nearly $100,000 grant last month from the Ontario Trillium Foundation to enhance mental health programs, staff training and inclusive initiatives that support suicide prevention and well-being for youth.
Vanessa Bowles, executive director of the Female Boarder Collective, said Thunder Bay's suicide rate is extremely high.
“Last year I had a friend, her son committed suicide and there have been so many in our community, not just in our skateboard community but in our community, and one is just too many," she said.
So far, the boarder collective and Cinema 5 Skatepark have used the Ontario Trillium Foundation grant to employ 10 staff members with Indigenous Cultural Competencies and Trauma Inform Training and SafeTALK and Mental Health First Aid Training.
The funded education ensures that employees can recognize and respond to a mental health crisis accurately.
Youth, who are a part from the Female Boarder Collective and Cinema 5 Skatepark, will additionally receive first-aid training, empowering youth to support their peers in time of crisis.
“We just want to support and help as many people as we can and if it impacts one person's life, (then) we have been successful with this,” Bowles said.
The Female Boarder Collective will also implement suicide awareness, self-regulation techniques, peer mentorship, gang intervention and mental health workshops into existing community programs.
Bowles said the skatepark was founded in 2022 with three main priorities.
“Our first priority was our 2SLGBTQIA+ and female programs,” Bowles said. “Our second priority was accessibility, so that's our autism club and accessible skateboard programs, and then our third priority is our mental health programs.”
“We have been able to accomplish that within the two-and-a-half years that we've been open, so we are really excited about this funding,” she said.
To continue being a driving community force, federal funding for programs like this is needed more than ever, said Thunder Bay-Superior North MPP Lise Vaugeois.
“Unfortunately, one of the things I've learned as an MPP is that the suicide rate amongst young people is actually very, very high, disturbingly high, in a way that it's hard for me to imagine actually,” said Vaugeois.
For more information on the Female Boarder Collective, upcoming events and available programs visit the Cinema 5 website.