​林地草坪高中的教职员工和学生正在打破沉默，开展有关心理健康的对话。2017年3月17日，教职员工和学生在学校体育馆聚集，有机会聆听青年冠军金·坎贝尔（Kim Campbell）和谢尔顿·肯尼迪（Sheldon Kennedy）从肯尼迪儿童援助中心（Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Center）发表讲话。随后，所有参与的人被邀请到欧尼·斯塔球场参加我们的年度教职员工学生曲棍球比赛，在林地草坪高中是一项具有悠久传统和重新定义目标和意义的活动。

林地草坪高中的学生首次有机会参与肯尼迪儿童援助中心（SKCAC）的青年冠军计划是在2014-2015学年。在金·坎贝尔，肯尼迪儿童援助中心董事会和谢尔顿·肯尼迪的领导下，他们与南阿尔伯塔省各个学校董事会的学生会面，开始讨论许多人都在努力应对的问题，包括虐待、创伤和心理健康。

我们现任的青年冠军布列塔尼·W.、奥德萨·V.、科迪·E.和贝莉·K.了解了大脑发育以及压力在一个人的生活中扮演的多重角色。他们制定了一个充满领导力工具的工具包，培养了帮助同学的技能，并与其他学校的青年冠军建立了联系。正如布列塔尼所说：“我们希望每个人都知道周围都有帮助可得，并且他们并不孤单。”

去年，学生们的任务是制作一个公益广告（PSA）来支持这项工作。我们的青年冠军在林地草坪高中制作了一个关于健康关系的视频。今年，他们被赋予了更广泛的任务：在你们的学校继续这项工作。学生们倾向于围绕我们年度教职员工学生曲棍球比赛计划一个意识活动，并为肯尼迪儿童援助中心筹集资金。

他们参与了几个月的策划，举行了无数次会议，利用了大量的资源，并在与策划此类活动相关的众多任务中展现了极大的毅力。肯尼迪儿童援助中心的金·坎贝尔在整个过程中予以支持。在CBE内部，学生受到我们的教师冠军、学校行政人员、成功中心以及心理服务和CBE传媒与社区参与部门的支持。这帮助他们对这样的事件策划过程中的许多因素有了了解，从广告和报告，到考虑艰难信息对多元人群的影响。

活动顺利进行。从我们学校团队的开场嘻哈舞蹈表演开始，学校师生、青年冠军们知识渊博而富有魅力的演讲，以及谢尔顿关于克服自己创伤经历影响的韧性、力量和希望的故事，让体育馆里的人们全都被吸引。集会结束后，我们的教职员工学生曲棍球比赛吸引了前所未有的人数。观众席坐无虚席，此事件更被Global News报道。

林地草坪高中的青年冠军已经开始策划明年的活动。他们从今年的成功中学习，以便继续在他们的学校社区促进有关心理和创伤的对话，并减少社会对此的污名。

​Staff and students at Forest Lawn High School are breaking the ice and opening up conversations about mental health. On March 17, 2017 Staff and students met in the school gym for an opportunity to hear from our youth champions, Kim Campbell from the Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Center, and Sheldon Kennedy himself. Everyone in attendance was then invited to Ernie Starr arena for our annual staff student hockey game, a long-standing tradition at Forest Lawn High School, that was taken up with renewed purpose and meaning this year.

Students at Forest Lawn High School were first given the opportunity to engage in the Youth Champion initiative through the Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Center (SKCAC) during the 2014-15 school year. Led by Kim Campbell, the board of the SKCAC and Sheldon Kennedy: they met with students from school boards throughout Southern Alberta and began to engage in conversations around subjects many of us struggle with; abuse, trauma and mental health.

Our current youth champions: Brittany W., Odessa V., Cody E., and Bayly K., have learned about brain development and the many-faceted roles stress can play in a person's life. They have developed a kit full of leadership tools, developed helping skills so they can be positive supports for their peers and connected with youth champions at other schools. As Brittany put it, "We want everyone to know that help is available all around them, and that they are not alone."

Last year students were tasked with creating a Public Service Announcement (PSA) to support this work. Our youth champions created a video on healthy relationships at Forest Lawn High School. This year, they were given a broader mandate: do something to continue this work at your school. The students gravitated to the idea of planning an awareness event around, and raising funds for the SKCAC through our annual staff student hockey game.

They participated in months of planning, held countless meetings, engaged a multitude of resources and showed great perseverance as they were involved in the myriad tasks associated with planning such an event. Kim Campbell from the SKCAC supported them throughout the process. Within the CBE, students engaged and were supported by our teacher champions, school administration and the Success Center as well as Psychological Services and members of CBE Communications and Community Engagement department. This helped them develop an understanding of some of the many factors that go into planning an event such as this, from advertising and reporting, to considering the effects that difficult messages can have on a diverse population.

The event went off without a hitch. The school population was hooked from the start of the opening hip hop dance performance by our school team, engaged and entertained by our knowledgeable and charismatic youth champions, and touched by Sheldon's story of the resilience, strength and hope that helped him to overcome the effects of his own traumatic experiences. The excitement in the gym was palpable. After the assembly, we had a record turn-out at our staff student hockey game. The stands were packed and the event was featured in a story by Global News.

Youth champions at Forest Lawn High School are already at work in planning next year's event. They are learning from their successes this year so they can continue to foster conversations around, and reduce stigma about, mental and trauma in their school community.