Two walks to raise awareness on issues of youth mental health are making their way across Canada from both the east and west coasts, with the British Columbia leg of the parallel walks making its way from Prince Rupert to Terrace today.
The Hope in the Darkness walk was put in motion by Founder Kevin Redsky, an Anishinaabe police Sergeant who personally has lived the struggle with mental health as a youth and has experienced the loss of youth members in his family. It was through his work with youth at risk and missing person cases, that compelled him to take a stand on youth mental health by showing young people that we all can take action, provide support and show love.
The British Columbia Indigenous Policing Services and First Nations Policing program are partnering with the Ontario officer to coordinate the BC portion of the walk.
Its intention is to be a call to action for Indigenous and non-Indigenous police officers that have worked with youth in crisis, the walk will provide officers with an opportunity to meet with youth and listen to their stories along the way. With support from a number of police services from across the country, Hope in the Darkness will work with schools, youth groups, Indigenous communities, mental health services and families to encourage youth participation in the walk.
The two journey's will meet in Winnipeg to bring the Walk to an end on August 3rd.
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| The Hope in the Darkness walk is bringing law enforcement officers from across Canada to communities across the nation to raise awareness on youth mental health initiatives |
The Prince Rupert to Terrace leg is the second segment of the British Columbia journey which got underway this week on Haida Gwaii, following a welcoming ceremony with elder Lily Bell.
The start of the west coast walk featured a team that includes Anishinabek Police Service Senior Constable Robert Campbell from the Algonquin from the Algonquins of Greater Golden Lake, who will start the west coast portion of the walk with BC RCMP FNPP members in Haida Gwaii.
Some notes on the start of the Haida Gwaii leg were offered up by the Masset Aboriginal Policing Services office yesterday.
They will walk the Highway of Tears from Prince Rupert to Terrace from today through to May 21st.
Motorists should be watchful for the group as they travel along the highway towards Terrace over the course of the next three days.
The journey then travels to Vancouver where the group will then continue on towards Manitoba starting from the Tsawwassen First Nation, as they cross Western Canada it will feature a team of Indigenous police officers and walkers throughout.
There is a crowd funding initiative underway now to help with the project, You can review more of what the Walk is all about and follow the journey across Western Canada from the Hope in the Darkness website that has been set up for the project.
For more items of note related to the work of Emergency Responders in the Northwest see our archive page here.
Other items related to Community events can be found from our Community events page.
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