Youth at risk fail at school, have mental health issues and get in trouble with the law. Would they be better served if all three systems – education, mental health and justice – worked together?

That question animated discussion at a recent forum organized by the 91��ɫ Centre for Education and Community (YCEC). Sponsored by 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education and the Department of Justice, the March 18 forum, called "Youth, Mental Health, and the Justice System: An Educational Concern", brought together academics and practitioners from universities, community-based organizations, school boards, the health sector, the justice system and government agencies.

Participants talked about the challenges of helping wayward youth and recommended ways to integrate systems. The recommendations will be featured in a report to be shared with the Department of Justice and are expected to form the basis of future changes.

, director of the Community Health Systems Resource Group, , acted as forum facilitator. In his opening remarks, he said young people can experience one or all of three factors – school failure, poor mental health and trouble with the law. “We know that certain groups are more likely to be in conflict with the law, and that there are risk factors,” he said, and encouraged participants to “dig into your experiences today and help us to understand how we can address issues of equity, so that we have not only equal access but also equal outcomes for all our youth.”

The forum began with a panel featuring , lawyer and education professor at 91��ɫ; , director of the Centre for Children Committing Offences & Program Development, Child Development Institute; , Distinguished Research Fellow in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education; and Llewellyn Joseph, medical director of the Regional Outpatient Disruptive Behaviors Program at , and YCEC Advisory Council member.

Shanahan opened by exploring the question: “Can we keep disruptive youth in the education system?” She offered a legal perspective on the discipline of wayward youth in schools, acknowledging the limitations of the law and education legislation that emphasizes safety in schools. She called for alternative approaches to dealing with wayward behavior in youth.

Augimeri described her work with “the forgotten kids” (aged six to 12 years) and “overshadowed girls” within this demographic, using the model, an internationally acclaimed, evidence-based program that identifies and works with children under 12 at risk of becoming involved (or already involved) with the law. She said “there is hope” because early intervention strategies tend to have the biggest impact on the younger age group.

Britzman discussed the fragile interaction of youth, law, desire and mental health. She offered philosophical and psychoanalytical views of adolescence and education, drawing from the work of Helene Deutsch, François Roustang, Anna Freud and Julia Kristeva.

Joseph, an experienced child and adolescent psychiatrist, provided an historical overview of the Canadian policy landscape vis-à-vis mental health, education and the law. Through case study examples, he explained the challenges of intervening with youth in conflict with the law. “One of the dilemmas is trying to determine whether that acting out behaviour presented in adolescence, or even early adolescence, is early bipolar disorder and should be labeled as mental health, or should be considered criminal behaviour.”

During ensuing round-table discussions, participants suggested improvements to all three systems – education, mental health and justice – and agreed that the greatest need for change exists where these systems intersect. They stressed repeatedly that the needs of youth can be met only if the three systems work together.  When that happens, said one participant, “we can create an environment where youth feel that people care about them.”

Participants deplored the punitive approach and incarceration for young people favoured by the government and in social discourse. Those working in medical and justice systems noted the increase in mentally ill individuals in prisons and detention facilities, and the limited capacity of the youth criminal justice system to meet the needs of youth, particularly those facing mental health challenges.

Lack of trust between youth and police is a significant factor in setting youth on life trajectories that involve repeated conflict with the law, said participants. “Youth from certain communities are being over-policed,” said one participant. Those communities tend to be where there are large concentrations of people of colour or Aboriginal populations. Participants stressed the need for all three systems to identify and address systemic racism as it affects young people.

To be successful, programs need to be multidimensional, target kids in elementary school, be consistent and sustainable, and engage community, youth and families, said participants. Programs need to foster strong, trusting relationships between youth and adults, and offer a variety of supports, including academic, health, social, recreational and cultural, they said.

Legislation must not punish but help and support young people who get in trouble, insisted participants. Youth must be encouraged to stay in school to improve their chances of success and avoid conflict with the law. Teachers must be trained and schools given resources to address mental health issues of children and youth at risk, they concluded.

The forum was organized by Carl James, YCEC director, and , dean of 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education.

Facilitating discussions were 91��ɫ education Professors Susan Dion, Nombuso Dlamini, John Ippolito, James and Shanahan; and geography Professor Ranu Basu.

Round-table discussions featured members of the YCEC advisory council: Mary Anne Chambers, Cheryl Jackson, Llewellyn Joseph, Amos Key Jr., Cheryl Prescod and Chandra Turner.

Taking notes were graduate students Melanie Bourke, Selom Chapman-Nyaho, Rebeca Gutierrez Estrada, Danielle Kwan-Lafond, Krysta Pandolfi and Samuel Tecle.

With files from Louise Gormley, research assistant, 91��ɫ Centre for Education & Community

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Expand the definition of art as a health tool, and consider it as an essential link, as a bridge between those who heal and those who need healing. The art becomes a shared language, and if culture gets involved the artistic process becomes symbolic. It builds trust, which fosters communication, which lays the foundation for a discussion about, for example, preventing HIV

That's how art is used by Sarah Flicker, a professor in [the Faculty of Environmental Studies] at 91��ɫ, who studies HIV prevention in aboriginal communities across Canada and uses art to get the interest of young natives.

Flicker is one of three professors who will be a part of "Café Scientifique," a public roundtable of sorts that will consider how the arts are being used in health programs these days [organized by the ].

. . .

Flicker starts by telling me that aboriginals represent three per cent of Canada's population, but have nine per cent of HIV infections – and at a younger age. Flicker's project is to find ways of having a meaningful conversation about HIV with young natives. Problem is, some native communities are not interested in "traditional research methods." Enter art.

“From theatre to photography to carving to hip-hop,” she says, when I ask her what types of arts her project has employed. She adds throat singing to the list, and graffiti at the Kahnawake Mohawk reserve near Montreal.

“Using the arts in our particular project has been tremendously successful,” she says. “It’s fun, it’s participatory, it helps build pride and self-esteem. . . It really helps them relate to culture and tradition, in a way that’s non-threatening.”

Using contemporary or traditional art forms — created by the young natives, with the guidance of artists brought in by the project — enhances recall of the health information, she says. It also builds skills, as the artists pass on their own knowledge and inspirations, and many young natives have their first opportunity to handle photographic equipment or real artist’s brushes.

“We were just astonished with the creativity we had unleashed,” Flicker says, as the research visited reserves from B. C. to Atlantic Canada. “What’s incredible is how the themes have resonated from community to another.”

They resonated so well that the art of some communities is used in others to get the health message across — such as a hip hop song composed by young natives in Kettle Creak, near Sarnia. Another group made a stop-motion film, using photography to show how HIV was affecting their community. “It’s in their words that art is healing,” Flicker says.

You can see the art of her project at takingaction4youth.org. The Café Scientifique will begin at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 23 at Mambo Nuevo Latino, 77 Clarence St. in the Byward Market. “The idea is to make health research accessible to the public,” Flicker says.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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What she’s found is that intelligence as measured by IQ tests is not the same as rationality or a rationality quotient (RQ). “There’s a folk idea that being smart in the IQ sense translates to being smart in the rational decision-making sense, but they’re not that related,” says Toplak. “It’s time for IQ to move over and make room for RQ.”

Left: Maggie Toplak

What that means is that although someone’s IQ may be high, their RQ may be rather low and if that’s the case, they are more likely to be irrational in their behaviour and decision-making capacity. That explains why some people who appear to be quite bright can make astonishingly silly decisions.

The problem with IQ tests, says Toplak, is that they don’t measure all of someone’s intelligence or mental ability. They don’t assess rational thought and that's because rational thought can’t be measured through timed performance tests the way IQ can. “Intelligence and executive functions are one component, but there are many others,” she says. “We’ve found that IQ tests are unrelated or only modestly related to measures of rational thinking.” Rationality shouldn’t be left out of the equation as it is key to whether people make choices that lead to happiness and fulfillment or possible misery.

When it comes to RQ, there are two main types – getting what you want most and finding truth in the world. Someone with a high RQ could be doing just fine, whereas someone with a high IQ may wonder why their decisions aren’t leading to happiness and life satisfaction.

Below: Steve Paikin, host of TVO's "The Agenda", interviews 91��ɫ Professor Maggie Toplak about her research on rational quotient, or RQ

People with low RQs are often cognitive misers, meaning that they take the easy way out when trying to solve problems, often leading to solutions that are illogical and wrong. Mindware gaps are another type of cognitive failure. It's when people lack the specific knowledge, rules and strategies needed to make rational choices. Another category of cognitive failure is called contaminated mindware – for example, belief in luck and superstition can lead people astray, such as pathological gamblers, she says.

What Toplak finds so exciting about this research is that if decision-making measures are unrelated to IQ and executive functions, then there are novel possibilities for training people to be better decision makers. “One of the big motivations for me is the taxonomy of types of cognitive errors and failures that people can make. We may find some areas that are more amenable to training than others. Some of the exciting directions of this work are to apply it to special populations, such as pathological gamblers, people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or youth offenders.” Many individuals with these difficulties have trouble creating goals for themselves. Assessment and training in the domain of rational thinking has been given little or no consideration in these special populations, and offers promising directions for training and intervention.

The research is showing that their level of IQ or executive functions has little to do with their ability to make rational decisions. Often in pathological gamblers and in individuals with ADHD, it’s their decisions and goal-making capacity that are causing problems. “In our most recent work, we are examining this in a sample of young offender adolescents with my graduate student, Geoff Sorge. I think the domain of rational thinking will help us quantify the difficulties that some of these individuals experience, and this will be very important from a training and treatment perspective.” This is an area that people really haven’t paid much attention to in the past.

In another study, Toplak and colleagues reviewed 43 studies that had explicitly examined the relationship between performance and cognitive abilities on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), which is used to study decision-making differences. What they found was that “the majority of studies reported a non-significant relationship…between decision-making on the IGT and cognitive abilities, which is consistent with recent conceptualizations that differentiate rationality from intelligence,” as Toplak and colleagues wrote in the April 2010 issue of Clinical Psychology Review.

In conjunction with other researchers, including Stanovich who wrote the book , Toplak and her colleagues are in the process of creating a taxonomy to understand why some people are better decision makers using a series of tasks to test RQ. And she and her colleagues have found that people with high IQs only do better than people with average IQs on RQ tests when they are told they have to use their rational thinking skills to solve them.

“Rational thinking is a really big construct with several components. We're carving out an area that people really haven't paid enough attention to," says Toplak. “We know that rational thinking predicts real-world outcomes.”

Toplak’s research on reasoning and decision making has been funded by the and she is collaborating on this work with psychology Professor , who has held a Canada Research Chair at the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, and psychology Professor of James Madison University.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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“Being homeless means constant exposure to dangerous people and places,” said the report, "Surviving Crime and Violence: Street Youth and Victimization in Toronto". It was released Monday.

While most criminal cases involve property, almost two-thirds of the people interviewed for the study said they have been the victim of a violent crime at least once. And more than three-quarters said they had been victimized in the past year, says the 2009 survey of 244 homeless young people aged 16 to 25.

That group is “perhaps the most victimized street youth population,” authors Stephen Gaetz, Bill O’Grady and Kristy Buccieri wrote. Gaetz is associate dean of research & field development in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education, O’Grady is a sociology and anthropology professor at the University of Guelph, and Buccieri is a PhD student at 91��ɫ.

The piece was also covered in  , , , Sept. 28.

, who is the associate dean of research & field development in 91��ɫ’s , also spoke about his latest study that shows homeless youth are often victims of crime, on CBC Radio and Radio Canada stations across the country and on OMNI-TV Sept. 27.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams with files courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Homeless young people are victims of crime at rates that society would consider unacceptable for any other group, according to a new report by researchers at 91��ɫ and the University of Guelph.

The report, , highlights the degree to which it is street youth themselves − often perceived as delinquent and dangerous − who are vulnerable to crime and violence.

“The very people we are taught to fear are the ones who are most at risk,” said Professor (right), associate dean of research and field development in 91��ɫ’s . ”More than 76 per cent of the homeless youth we surveyed said they had been victims of violent crime in the past year, and almost three-quarters of them reported multiple incidents.”

In comparison, about 40 per cent of young people in the general population reported that they had been victimized in the previous year, when the last asked them about it in 1999 − and they experienced mostly property crime.

Gaetz and University of Guelph Professor interviewed 244 homeless youths across Toronto last year about life on the streets. Their report was commissioned by , a not-for-profit legal aid clinic that operates a Street Youth Legal Services program, providing legal advice and support to homeless youth in Toronto.

The solution to problems youth face on the streets lies in changing the way youth homelessness is addressed, according to the report. It calls for a balanced response that, instead of relying mostly on emergency services, would balance preventive measures, an emergency response, and transitional support to move young people out of homelessness quickly.

Above: A homeless youth keeps dry under a bridge in downtown Toronto. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

In the interviews, conducted at agencies serving youth in downtown Toronto and the suburbs:

• female street youth were more likely than males to report being victims of crime (85.9 per cent compared to 71.8 per cent).
• 38.2 per cent of the female street youth reported being victims of sexual assault. Reports of sexual assault were higher among black females (47 per cent) than white females (33 per cent).
• 60 per cent of lesbian and bisexual females reported that they had been sexually assaulted in the past year, making them perhaps the most victimized group among street youth.
• young homeless women reported extremely high levels of violence and abuse from their intimate partners.
• youths who had become homeless at a young age (16 or 17) were much more likely to have been violently victimized than young people who became homeless later.
• only 20 per cent of all respondents said they had alerted police about their victimization.

Much has changed since Gaetz first wrote a report on homeless youth in Toronto, also for Justice for Children and Youth, seven years ago. The and non-profit agencies have improved services, and the City has expanded its Streets to Homes program to move youth into housing. Street Youth Legal Services, a program of Justice for Children and Youth, has expanded its capacity to support young people with their legal and justice issues.

However, the report concludes federal, provincial and municipal governments should be addressing youth homelessness with an integrated strategy that includes: an adequate supply of supported, affordable housing for young people; efforts by health and mental health sectors, corrections and child welfare services to ensure their practices do not contribute to homelessness; crisis intervention and family mediation to help young people remain housed; and transitional approaches with income, social and health care supports for young people.

“Many people, including policy makers, believe that youth homelessness and crime are linked, and they use laws such as the Safe Streets Act to ‘move along’ young people,” said Gaetz. “In fact, our findings show that young homeless people are among the most victimized people in our society, and they need our protection.”

Gaetz leads the (CHRN), which enhances the impact of homelessness research on homelessness and the housing crisis by increasing collaboration and discussion among researchers, policy-makers and community workers. One of Canada’s leading experts on homelessness, Gaetz also created the – the world’s first digital hub to mobilize homelessness research – to support collaboration, knowledge exchange, and public engagement among regional and clustered research networks. CHRN, , received $2.1 million through the strategic knowledge clusters program.

By Janice Walls, media relations coordinator. Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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If you’re United Way of 91��ɫ Region (UWYR), you collaborate with 91��ɫ’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit.

This summer, three 91��ɫ students will gain valuable experience through internships with UWYR’s Community Engagement & Research Committee.

As part of their experience with the UWYR, the interns will review literature focusing on the impact of growth and change on human services and various responses to address its impact. They will also conduct social asset mapping within 91��ɫ Region’s identified geographies of growth. And finally, they will identify, refine and pilot potential neighbourhood assessment tools for future consultation and engagement activities with residents, community groups, service providers and other key stakeholders.

Their findings will inform the way in which UWYR plans and delivers investments in communities experiencing rapid growth to further its community impact: helping youth grow up strong, enabling individuals and families to achieve economic independence, and improving the well-being of individuals and communities.

The graduate student interns bring a variety of social science research experience to bear on this project.

Jessica Carriere, who is working with Professor Gerda Wekerle in the Faculty of Environmental Studies, is researching the social aspects of city planning within major Canadian cities as she works toward completing the Master in Environmental Studies Planning Program. She hopes to work in social planning and development at the municipal level, assisting in the creation of new policy-led strategies aimed at strengthening public involvement in decision-making processes and encouraging investment in social infrastructure.

Left: Jessica Carriere

Nausheen Quayyum, has completed a master of arts in development studies under the supervision of Professors Ananya Mukherjee Reed and Eduardo Canel and will begin doctoral studies in the fall. She has previous experience as a research intern working with (Dhaka), (Toronto) and the University of Toronto’s Health & Human Rights Program.

Right: Nausheen Quayyum

Silvia D’Addario is a doctoral student in the Graduate Program in Geography. Under Professor Valerie Preston’s supervision, D’Addario was a graduate researcher on the 91��ɫ Infrastructure Project, which assessed the supply and demand of social infrastructure for three vulnerable populations – recent immigrants, low-income residents and seniors in 91��ɫ Region. Her doctoral studies explore the gendering and racializing intersections of work and residence for immigrants in suburban Toronto.

Left: Silvia D’Addario

The Knowledge Mobilization Unit’s internship program, funded in part by a Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Knowledge Impact in Society grant, awards 12 internships each year to 91��ɫ graduate students based on an internal competition.

More than 24 students have been placed to date, including 91��ɫ alumna Tammy Lowe (née Miller) (MA ’08) who was supervised by Professor Barbara Crow while completing her master of arts in communication & culture. Through her internship placement with , Lowe used her master's class and thesis work to conduct a needs assessment to understand and inform a communications strategy and new Web site for the non-profit organization. Lowe was recently hired as a campaign manager with UWYR.

Right: Tammy Lowe

With the SSHRC grant now concluded, the internship program is jointly supported by UWYR and the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation. It is just one way in which UWYR and 91��ɫ work together to make research accessible and of benefit to 91��ɫ Region residents.

“We share with 91��ɫ a vision for a healthy and sustainable 91��ɫ Region that uses evidence-based research to inform support for public services,” says Daniele Zanotti, CEO of United Way of 91��ɫ Region. “For us, knowledge mobilization is priceless.”

Submitted by David Phipps, director of the Office of Research Services, and Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer

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The other area of high risk for pregnancy is youth from Aboriginal communities in northern Ontario.

“As we read and summarized and synthesized research literature, and talked to youth workers, we realized there were these specific groups,” says Connolly, director of the LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence & Conflict Resolution. “With that kind of feedback our research becomes focused and we can shift the lens to these three groups, for instance.”

That is the value of knowledge mobilization – the ability to see the gaps in the research and to more accurately zoom in where there is a need.

Right: Jennifer Connolly

The initial goal of Connolly’s KMb project, “Teen Pregnancy and Teen Mothers: Meeting the Needs in 91��ɫ Region”, was to examine the prevalence of pregnant teens and teen mothers in 91��ɫ Region and how their mental health needs were being met,  and it identify service gaps. The project also reviewed those girls receiving protective service intervention from 91��ɫ Region Children’s Aid Society to evaluate their risk for pregnancy and initiated community-based opportunities for feedback and knowledge exchange. In addition, the project was designed to help determine how research on risk and resilience can inform clinical care, maximize positive outcomes and point the way for areas of further research.

“It led us to recognize that teen pregnancy was in the low to moderate range in Canada; about three to four per cent of live births are to women 19 and younger," says Connolly, a psychology professor in the Faculty of Health. It used to be higher. In the United States, it’s up around 18 per cent and in Italy it’s down around one per cent. "Teen pregnancy has certainly dropped in Canada, but when we look at the data, it ignores the fact that there are huge disparities in that information. In some communities the risk of teen pregnancy and motherhood is much higher.”

For teen girls in the three highest risk categories, the rate of pregnancy soars to 30 to 50 per cent, and the teen pregnancy and motherhood outcomes in these groups are not good.

The research team – Connolly, 91��ɫ Professor Hala Tamim of the School of Kinesiology & Health Science in the Faculty of Health, psychology Professor Yvonne Bohr also of the Faculty of Health, Sandra Cunning of Kinark Child & Family Services and Bonita Majonis of 91��ɫ Region Children’s Aid Society – realized the value of getting the results from research and knowledge synthesization out to community members who could make use of them.

One such community would be the youth workers and service agencies that work directly with these teens. This summer, Connolly, along with colleagues and students, will post plain language research summaries on 11 different topics using the Orion 03 platform, thanks to a Canadian Institutes of Health Research supplement grant. This is part of a research mobilization project headed by David Phipps, director of the Office of Research Services, to get clear, concise summaries of research out to communities.

For Connolly’s research, youth workers from Kinark Child & Family Services and the 91��ɫ Region Children’s Aid Society will comment on the summaries and bring forth any questions.

The topics that will be tackled for the summaries will include homelessness and teen pregnancy and mothers; the risk and resilience of teen mothers; the risk and resilience of the mothers of teen mothers; teen pregnancy and teen motherhood in Canada; and the availability of services for teen mothers in 91��ɫ Region.

It will allow Connolly and Phipps to take a closer look at how synthesized research can help those using the information in the community. It’s a way to evaluate how well knowledge mobilization works, Conolly says. She is hoping the project will point to specific areas where more research is needed. “The kind of questions we will ask in future research will be shaped by the real world.”

More information about Connolly's research is available on the .

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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In Toronto, the in-between city roughly corresponds to the postwar suburbs, or inner suburbs, that grew with the booming economy of the 1950s and ’60s. As urban researchers have observed, their highrises, diverse immigrant populations and lower-than-average incomes are the stuff of the inner city; but their bungalows, strip malls and wide roads are quintessentially suburban.

But all is not despair: the in-between city is a city of activists, concerned parents, urban entrepreneurs and young leaders. Independent media outlets like cover community issues and give young people a voice that they don’t have in the mainstream media.

Groups such as the Black Action Defence Committee are engaged in gang exit, youth employment and leadership development programs. Jane-Finch Action Against Poverty, the St. Alban’s Boys & Girls Club, and youth drop-in SPOTEND are all working around issues of social justice, effectively mitigating the marginalization experienced by their community.

Across Toronto, in neighbourhoods like Jane-Finch, hundreds of community organizations work tirelessly on issues of transit justice, tenant rights and food security, sometimes with the help of the city through initiatives like the Neighbourhood Action Plan and Youth Challenge Fund, and often on shoestring budgets.

Such efforts give residents of the in-between city hope. Hope that one day their lives will not include the drama of police raids, struggling schools, low wages and long commutes. Hope that governments at all levels will recognize the need for a comprehensive urban agenda that combats social exclusion and addresses the needs of the in-between city.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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When Dr. Rai Reece pays a visit to a young female prisoner, she often sees someone who shouldn't be there.

Not because their crime is excusable, but because somewhere along the way, the system or their community has failed them.

"I started working with at-risk youth at age 18, working with only young women and now adult women, as well," said Reece, a professor of women's studies at 91��ɫ. "What I've learned about these young women is there are always core issues or factors that impact their lives and drive them to this lifestyle. Those factors can be abuse, racism, sexism or even peer pressure."

Reece spoke Tuesday morning during Day 2 of the Mobilize Barrie conference at the Dorian Parker Centre in Sunnidale Park.

The conference is aimed at creating a safer community, while helping at-risk youth get the services and opportunities they need to stay away from drugs, gangs and a life of crime.

Reece's talk focused on young women in the prison system. She discussed how community organizations and legal authorities need to dig deeper to find the root of what makes these girls and women resort to crime and violence.

She said incarceration isn't always the answer, and without help overcoming their issues, these girls and women can slip through the cracks.

"There's a lot of talk of an influx of girls becoming more violent and joining gangs, but that's just public fear and perception," Reece said. "Statistics show there's actually a decreasing number. But, we are seeing a large trend of young girls engaging in sexual activity very early and they are seen as bad girls for what's being called deviant behaviour."

Being viewed this way is one trigger for young girls to lash out or invert and start making bad choices.

"Other reasons are physical, emotional or cultural violence that these young women are afraid to report," Reece said. "When girls are alienated, they retreat and stop talking about their problems. But the problems continue to affect their lives and behaviours."

Reece said if authorities and counsellors would only start asking more in-depth questions of these girls before they are charged and incarcerated, they might find underlying issues that these girls need help with to stop their outlandish behaviour.

"Once you empower young women, they will open up and feel free to talk about issues that lead them to this point," Reece said. "Young girls are highly more vulnerable on the streets than young men, and are subjected to sexual assaults and sex-work for money. These can have damaging effects on them.

"I've created girl-only focus groups so girls can open up about their experiences among their own gender," she added. "Service providers aimed at young women need to go to the sources, ask women what they want and need for assistance. Then, do an assessment to see how you can give them what they need."

Reece said police officers, counsellors and even parents need to consider mental health issues or crimes of poverty as reasons young girls commit crimes. Actions could be taken out of desperation.

"If we don't address systemic issues or crimes of poverty, these young people will quickly move from the youth justice system into the federal system," Reece said. "It doesn't excuse their crimes or violence, but some of these young offenders never really had a chance at a good life."

. . .

Reece also spoke on the dysfunction of the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA).

"Penalizing youth for non-violent crimes and putting them in jail won't make them better people," she said. "The YCJA is not working. It's not keeping youth out of the federal system.

"If you are charged and are 17 years old plus a day, you are considered an adult and transferred into the federal justice system," she added. "As well, young people are not aware of their rights under the YCJA and aren't being made aware of the important information."

// The complete article is available on the .

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Wiliams with files courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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