A 22-year-old woman from Constance Lake, west of Hearst, has become Ambassador of Hope through the We Matter Campaign.
That’s an organization that trains young indigenous people to advocate for mental health for their peers. .
Mallory Solomon says she joined because she’s concerned about the lack of resources in First Nations communities, and the suicide epidemic among their youth.
“So I wanted to be like a mental health advocate and to uplift other indigenous youth,” Solomon explains. “Not just supporting the ones who succeed, but the ones who are just on the stepping stone of succeeding (at suicide).”
(Photo supplied)
Solomon will travel anywhere in Northern Ontario with mental health professionals to conduct workshops aimed at those youth.
She says We Matter trains people like her to conduct those workshops talking talking to them and showing them videos the ambassadors produce.
“We did videos on A Tribe Called Red and they talked about their story,” Solomon says. “We talked to other professors, teachers, elders and they shared their story about what they’ve been through and what they did to overcome the obstacles that they faced as an indigenous person.”
For more information on the We Matter Campaign, what it does, and how you can become an Ambassador of Hope, click here
