Frayme Learning Institute 2023

Agnes Chen is a proud mom of 4, a Registered Nurse, and the founder and Executive Director at Starlings Community, a not-for-profit whose mission is to protect the health and promote the healing of youth exposed to the stress and stigma of a parent’s substance use. Over the last 5 years, she has utilized her personal and professional experience to lead a national movement that recognizes the harm that substance use stigma imposes on the health and well-being of Canadian youth. Today, as a passionate advocate, she aims to ensure that families affected by intergenerational trauma and problematic substance use are protected from systemic harm and have equitable access to barrier-free resources that support their well-being within a compassionate society.

Alexandra is a passionate advocate and volunteer at Starlings community who applies her lived experience of having a parent with substance use disorder to advocate for youth. By centring lived experience, utilizing anti-oppressive approaches and community-owned scholarship, Alexandra hopes to empower people marginalized due to substance use stigma to share their truths. She believes that focalizing lived experience on a systemic level is the cornerstone of effective social change.

Allison is a fourth-year Child, Youth and Family Coop student at the University of Guelph. Throughout her life, she knew she wanted to make an impact on young people but spent a lot of time wondering how. Through her studies and experiential opportunities, Allison discovered her passion for mental health advocacy. Her experience as an Equity and Diversity Coordinator at The Grove allowed her to navigate the ways in which organizations can make mental health support more accessible to young people. Over the past year she has worked with various youth, organizational leaders and working groups to collaborate, learn and reflect on various subjects surrounding mental health. In particular, Allison had an impactful experience over the summer as a member of an Indigenous Reconciliation workshop which opened her mind to the importance of Indigenous sovereignty and relationship-building. Allison looks forward to continuing her education relative to mental health and contributing her voice to her community.

Andréanne brings more than 10 years of combined experience in counselling and youth support program management and development to Kids Help Phone. In her role, she oversees service and youth mobilization programs such as Resources Around Me, Counsellor in the Classroom, Good2Talk and the National Youth Council (NYC). She also brings leadership to services for the organization’s focus communities through Kids Help Phone’s Indigenous Initiatives and Equity Programs. She’s also responsible for the clinical training and quality assurance of counselling services. Andréanne has dedicated her career to leveraging her passion for mental health support and skills to advance young people’s rights to autonomy and self-determination in help seeking and receiving support. Holding a master’s degree in clinical sexology, Andréanne uses her experience in providing counselling and therapy to young people and adults in service program design and development. Andréanne has also been involved in the development of several youth mental health and wellness services and projects such as Live Chat counselling, resource development and more. She 9 / 13 has promoted and advocated for the understanding of diverse perspectives in order to achieve positive outcomes while maintaining an open and empathy-driven environment. She has a passion for learning, believes in values-based work and is keen to imagine and action new and improved ways for youth to get the help they need, in the way they need it most.

Cassandra (she/her) is a volunteer with Starling's community and a student studying criminology at the University of Alberta. In light of her lived experience, vulnerability, and passion for social justice, Cassandra is paving the way for a society that supports youth who are impacted by the stigma of a parent's substance use. Based on her own experience as a youth losing her father and uncle to an overdose, finding a peer mentor group through the Starlings community has positively impacted her life. She encourages others to seek out people who understand, accepts, and validate them and their experiences and wishes for a future that has more resources and supports for youth and families impacted by the stigma of SUDs.

Chealsea De Moor is a Knowledge Broker with the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction. She has been with the center for 5 years. Her present areas of focus include virtual supports and services, 2SLGBTQ+ substance use health and impaired driving. She has also been involved with CCSA’s Canadian Substance Use Cost and Harms project since 2017, in both research and knowledge mobilization capacities. She is presently the co-chair of CCSA’s equity, diversity and inclusion committee. Chealsea holds a master’s degree in forensic psychology from Carleton University. Her Masters studies focused primarily on the substance use and mental health needs of women offenders. She is also a former employee of the Correctional Service Canada Research Branch – Women Offender’s Unit.

Cyndy Dearden is the inaugural Executive Director for The Grove Wellington Guelph (an official site of Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario). She is responsible for bringing the vision to fruition by working collaboratively with the communities of Wellington County and Guelph.

Prior to joining this project Cyndy was the Homewood Research Institute’s (HRI) first chief development officer. She was responsible for working with the Institute’s board and staff leadership to develop donor relationships and build community and philanthropic support for the Institute.

Before joining HRI, Cyndy served for almost a decade with the Huntington Society of Canada as the vice-president of development and marketing. Her work there included building a strong donorcentred organizational culture, establishing performance metrics and accountability processes, and expanding participation in Huntington-related clinical trials.

Previously, Cyndy held a number of positions in Kitchener and Guelph, starting her career at the University of Guelph including academic counselor, admissions counselor and general manager of the Conference Office. An active community volunteer, Cyndy was Chair of the board of directors for YMCA-YWCA of Guelph and the Guelph Community Foundation as well as sitting on a number of 10 / 13 committees and community initiatives.

Dwight Ballantyne grew up in Montreal Lake Cree Nation, a remote north Saskatchewan First Nation, until the age of 21. He always felt that he was invisible to the rest of the world that existed outside of his community. When a once in a lifetime opportunity to move to BC presented itself in 2016 he took a leap of faith and left everything he knew behind. Once he had a chance to adjust to his new lifestyle, he realized that many of the new people he met did not even know what a reserve was. This realization instilled a desire to find a way to bridge the gap between remote Indigenous communities and the rest of Canada. In 2019, Dwight founded The Ballantyne Project with the goal of raising awareness about what it was like to grow up in a remote First Nation

Marion is a clinical social worker and mental health and addictions leader who has worked in the community sector in various positions for nearly 30 years. Marion is the Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) for Manitoba and Winnipeg. Marion has served as the Executive Lead for Strategic Partnerships with the CMHA National Office. She currently serves on the Mental Health Promotion Expert Working Group for the International Union for Health Promotion (IUHP) and the Public Health Council Leaders with the International Institute for Mental Health Leadership (IIMHL). Marion is passionate about recovery, social justice, system transformation, co-design, and innovation to advance mental health and wellbeing for the entire population.

Sonya has been involved as a Foundry Youth Researcher since April 2022 and has immensely enjoyed hearing the diverse thoughts and opinions of the youth she interviewed. She recently started her undergraduate degree in Honours Integrated Science at Western University. She is passionate about problem-solving and innovation in health, and hopes to incorporate those aspects into a future research career. Outside of academia, Sonya enjoys making art and music, playing netball, and exploring the outdoors.

As Manager of Strategic Initiatives at Choices for Youth (CFY), Jen works at the intersection of impact measurement, government relations, and community engagement. Jen has led foundational work at CFY to develop an Integrated Youth Services (IYS) network across NL, building from the existing IYS site in St. John’s, NL, and working with 65+ community partners to build a model that is focused on both mental health and wrap-around service delivery for youth and young families in our province. Jen leads a team that is responsible for impact measurement, research, community partnerships, and public policy for CFY and the NL Integrated Youth Services network.

Jennifer Wide (she/her) has been practicing as a consultant psychiatrist since completing training at the University of British Columbia, obtaining a Master of Science in Neuroscience (in the field of neurogenesis) followed by a medical degree, and more recently attaining a diplomate designation through the American Board of Addiction Medicine. She has a special interest in emotion regulation and trauma care. Her research interests include knowledge translation and implementation of therapeutic practices. In her spare time, she enjoys sampling culinary delights, traveling and spending time with her two littles.

Sarah Adair (she/her) has lived on the west coast for 8 years. In that time she has delved into the world of public health and addiction research. She lead a substance use education and harm reduction program at Vancouver Island University where she completed her BSc. This work lead her to contribute to multiple studies related to substance use and led her to work with the BC Center on Substance Use. In her current role as a research coordinator with Foundry, Sarah has been involved in various projects which focus on youth mental health. Sarah has been volunteering with the Looking Glass foundation for 2 years, and has an interest in the resurgence of work being done with psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.

Katelyn is a suicide attempt survivor and mental health advocate. She has living and lived expertise with mental health concerns, the mental health system, foster care system, and beyond. Katelyn now works in research, knowledge translation, and knowledge mobilization, surrounding child and youth mental health. Katelyn also practices child, youth, and family Peer Support. Lived and living experience is Katelyn’s passion. She hopes this continues to inspire people to share their own lived experience and further push for it to be heard and integrated into the broader mental health system.

After experiencing first-hand the significant gaps in mental health services while attempting to provide appropriate supports for her son in life and at school, and ultimately losing her son to mental health, Leslie founded Myles Ahead. In memory of her son, Myles, Leslie brings over 20 years of research, evaluation, and management system experience in generating tangible, large-scale improvements through strategic program development, delivery, monitoring, evaluation, as well as policy advocacy in the environmental/energy conservation arena. By translating this expertise to Myles Ahead, Leslie is dedicated to creating a more cohesive and accessible support system for the mental wellness of children & youth in Canada, with the ultimate goal of mitigating child & youth suicide and making the world a kinder and more empathetic place for our kids.

Leslie believes in building partnerships to foster change, using an evaluative risk management lens to identify the gaps in the fragmented mental health care system to identify opportunities to improve services and mitigate potential risks… and that working together, we can create an inclusive culture based on compassion and empathy for everyone.

Mahalia Dixon is a Youth Engagement Specialist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Mahalia continuously seeks to advocate for the reality that the most effective and relevant research, policy, and service provision is centred around the needs and wants of those with lived experience.

I began engaging with issues relating to social justice during my time as a coach for the Special Olympics Kincardine Division. This inspired me to volunteer with the Community Association for Riders with Disabilities, a Toronto-based organization that offers equine therapy. Seeing the progress individuals made over the seasons influenced my decision to continue my education and obtain my credentials as an Early Childhood Educator. Although I sincerely enjoyed working with young children, I found that mental health and neural development were my calling. I went on to obtain an Honours Bachelor of Child Development where I had the opportunity to conduct sociological research. Currently, I am enrolled in the Bachelor of Education program at York University within the Primary/Junior Division. Since beginning the program I co-created the Start Here, Start Now: 2SLGBTQQIA+ Teacher Candidate Workshop. I am also the Chair of the Youth Council for the Youth Homelessness Prevention and Housing Stabilization Strategy of the York Region. Through the Youth Strategy I was given the opportunity to lead the By Youth For Youth Project, which is aimed at informing homeless and/or at-risk youth of their tenancy rights. My goal is to use my experiences and education to help homeless and/or at-risk youth overcome challenges, so they can pursue their goals, as I have mine.

Shaleen Jones has been an advocate, organizer, educator, and all-round rabble rouser in the field of eating disorders for over twenty five years, holding leadership positions with community organization such as the BC Eating Disorders Association, Laing House, Peer Support Canada, and CMHA National.
Having overcome an eating disorder, she is passionate about recovery, the transformative power of peer support, and creating sustainable, systematic changes across the sector. Shaleen was one of the first people trained to provide peer support for those with eating disorders in Canada, and earned her Peer Support Certification from Peer Support Canada in 2015.

Shaleen was recognized with an Inspiring Lives Award from the Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia, and served on the Mental Health Advisory Council to the Federal Minister of Health. She is an active member of the Mental Health Commission of Canada’s Hallway Group, Quality Mental Health Care Network, and the E-Mental Health Collaborative. She is a founding member of Canada’s Body Peace Collaborative.
As the Executive Director for Eating Disorders NS Shaleen works to ensure that no-one in Nova Scotia has to face an eating disorder alone.

Marg Cox is Executive Director of the Haliburton County Youth Wellness Hub and Point in Time, Centre for Children, Youth and Parents. She has a passion for Collective Impact, youth, family and community engagement, service integration and anti-oppression, anti-racism and collaboration. Marg has participated and championed many change processes in order to address both determinants of health and improve service, through increased access and service integration and utilizes a “whatever it takes” approach.

Mary is the Manager of the Haliburton County Youth Wellness Hub and has worked with Point in Time, Centre For Children, Youth and Parents for 13 years. She has an education and background in anti-oppressive counselling and advocacy which has guided her in her work in the youth justice system, counselling and youth and community engagement. Mary is passionate about creating and sustaining space where youth can come as they are, share their voice freely and develop positive connections to their community.

Zoya Punjwani is an MD/PhD student in Epidemiology at the University of Calgary. Across her diverse health research experiences, her passion is rooted in knowledge translation and bridging the gaps between benchside, bedside and community medicine. Her doctoral research will focus on assessing transition (pediatric to adult health care) readiness in youth with chronic health conditions.

Mary Hanna (she/her) is the Project Manager for the Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario (YWHO) Evaluation Portfolio. She holds a Masters degree in Applied Social Research and a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology, from Laurentian University. Mary’s professional areas of interest and expertise include using data and data platforms to facilitate integrated service delivery and measurementbased cased care in the delivery of mental health services. Mary is passionate about approaches to evaluation and data collection that involve team collaboration and co-design with service providers and people who access services. In her spare time, Mary enjoys teaching Zumba and taking part in food and cultural experiences.

Raymond Johnson-Brown (they/them), Indigenous Wellness Coordinator. Guided by their lived experience in foster care and breaking the cycle of generations of mental health/addictions, Raymond strives to encourage conversations that centre collective wellness. Moving from the current model of doing for communities, Raymond pushes organizations to co-create with communities and actively apply two-eyed seeing to move forward in a good way. Raymond is currently in their fourth year of the Bachelors of Indigenous Social Work Program at Laurentian University.

Kelli is the Manager of Engagement at the Knowledge Institute on Child and Youth Mental Health and Addictions. Kelli oversees the youth and family engagement program including the Knowledge Institute's youth and family advisory councils and supports the implementation of the quality standards for youth engagement with agencies across the sector.

Jacqueline Relihan is a Youth Engagement Specialist at CAMH. Jacqueline works alongside a team of young people with lived experience of mental health or substance use challenges to support decisions around service planning, policy development and research within CAMH and the community. As a young person with lived experience they are passionate about making a positive change to the current youth mental health system and truly believes there is much room to make it better then it currently is. They are a strong advocate for youth engagement in research and service planning and co-leads CAMH’s National Youth Action Council, which is a group of passionate young advocates from across Canada who provide feedback on projects related to mental health and substance use.

Michelle is a 25 year old writer, advocate, and content creator. She was born and raised on the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Okanagan (Syilx) People and started her instagram/blog "BodyPosiPower" back in 2016. Since then, she's been featured in outlets such as the TODAY Show, Yahoo, The New York Post, and more. Michelle is also incredibly passionate about youth mental health advocacy work and lives with a learning disability.

Stephanie Ens, Director, Clinical Service Innovation, Huddle Manitoba, United Way Winnipeg Stephanie holds a Masters of Social Work degree from the University of Manitoba with a research background focusing on the needs of Indigenous youth. For the past ten plus years, Stephanie has been a youth mental health clinician and coordinator at NorWest Co-op Community Health. Her practice has evolved from community-based social work to research and policy analysis work which became the impetus for the NorWest Youth Hub (the first Youth Hub in Manitoba), to her most recent position which is coordinating NorWest’s “Intervention and Outreach Team” (IOT), a team that supports youth with highly complex needs using evidence-based models such as Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) and Canadian High Fidelity Wraparound.

As a certified DBT therapist and a Wrap Canada coach and trainer, Stephanie is committed to blending the Wraparound approach with Indigenous cultural practices and works closely with NorWest team elder Ivy Chaske to ensure that this is done in a good way. In joining the MYHI Backbone Team, Stephanie will remain part of the NorWest clinical team – a strategy that will work well to connect the new hubs to NorWest’s significant clinical experience and innovative approaches, and to support the development of evidence-based

Ancestrally, I am a second-generation immigrant from Punjab (India), and a settler who was raised on the lands of the Syilx speaking nations. I live, love and play on Coast Salish nation lands. My background includes advocacy and awareness with South Asian Mental health, a Master’s in Public Health and experience co-leading initiatives and projects to design and support healthier communities. With Foundry I work alongside colleagues in addressing anti-racism at an organizational and network level, as well as supporting community development and expansion of Foundry.

Simone Maassen (she/her) studied and worked in Germany as a certified psychologist. She has over 25 years of experience working with children, youth and families in Germany, South Africa and Canada, and has also been involved in a number of research projects. Simone has been involved with Foundry Abbotsford and its partners from the very beginning. For the last 22 years she has worked with the Youth Resource Centre at Archway Community Services and is currently the Manager of Youth & Health Services

Vivian Kwan (she/her) is the Community Engagement and Partnership Lead at Kickstand. She holds a Bachelor of Science (2015) and a Master of Public Health (2021), and has worked in the public sector in various capacities in the past 6 years. She currently also serves as the Board Chair with the Centre for Race and Culture, Director of Marketing and Communications with the Emerging Health Leaders – Edmonton, and a member on the American Public Health Association Women’s Caucus Program Planning Committee. During her down time, she enjoys building her own wine subscription and spending quality time with friends over food.

Rachal Pattison (they/them) is the Service Innovation and Implementation Lead at Kickstand, in Edmonton, AB. As a registered occupational therapist (OT), they have worked with individuals living with chronic pain and as a mental health therapist supporting federally incarcerated women. Rachal also has a master's degree from the University of British Columbia, doing research in gender identity and mental health in young people. When they are not working on establishing integrated youth services in Alberta, they can be found reading fantasy novels, eating nachos and catering to the whims of their co-dependent cat.

Una Wright is the Founder of YouthSpeak Performance Charity, an organization inspired by personal experience within her own family related to mental health including the loss of two children. YouthSpeak provides leadership training to youth with personal experience related to mental health, bullying, racism and substance use to provide youth-led interactive assemblies and workshops for primary grades to post-secondary, parents, educators and other caring adults throughout the GTA and southern Ontario. Since its inception 20 years ago, YouthSpeak has reached over 350,000 with messages of hope, inclusivity, empathy and resilience.

Una’s passion and drive to support caring adults who care for youth also inspired her Self-Care Workshops as she has made it her personal mission to give a message of self-empowerment and to embrace their own story through coping strategies and a positive mindset.

Stacie (she/her) completed an undergraduate degree in Kinesiology from Dalhousie University in 2020 and a professional degree in Education from the University of New Brunswick in 2022. She works at Partners for Youth as the Youth Mental Health Project Coordinator in Fredericton, NB. Recently, she was a Co-Chair of the Youth Advisory Council of the Youth Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Services Review conducted by the NB Child and Youth Advocate’s office. She is also Co-Executive Director of the Young Canadians Roundtable on Health, the founder of the Mental Health Student Support Network, a Groundbreaker with Frayme, and co-lead of the Mental Health International Youth Advisory Committee (G1G). She is passionate about school food, food insecurity, youth mental health, and youth engagement.

Anne Marie Portelli (she/her) graduated from the University of Guelph with a major in Child, Youth and Family and recently began her Master of Social Work at Wilfrid Laurier University. Her lived and living expertise are a huge 'why' in terms of why she is passionate about mental health and wellness - and creating a mental health and substance use system where youth can access the supports they need when they need it. There is so much stigma preventing youth from accessing support - and finding that support is difficult to begin with. Anne Marie is a Frayme Groundbreaker (and previous KMb fellow!), is a youth mentor within CMHA’s YouthTALK program, and is most importantly, grateful to share this space with all of you!

Justin is a university student from Toronto, Ontario, passionate about youth mental health and substance education. Attending the University of Toronto, Justin advocates for hearing the voices of all youth equitably and equally. Justin has served on multiple committees involving youth mental health. These include the Digital Action Group run by CAMH, a team of youth leaders ensuring that digital spaces are safe and helpful to youth, and the Information and Privacy Commission's Youth Advisory Council. Justin is passionate about Knowledge Mobilization and is working on a Zine to promote Knowledge Equity in the youth mental health field.

Julia Parrott is a psychotherapist currently working in PEI as a youth trauma therapist. She did her undergraduate degree at the University of Ottawa in Psychology and Economics where she completed her honours thesis which explored the relationship between fear of cancer recurrence, intolerance of uncertainty and quality of life. Julia then went on to complete her master’s in Counselling and Spirituality at Saint Paul University and published her thesis which used knowledge mobilization techniques to translate an in person social emotional learning program for children, into an online-live hybrid. Julia has a passion for clinical and research psychology spanning the health and trauma fields.