EDMONTON -- More than a hundred students from around Alberta gathered on Thursday to learn about mental illness.
Indigenous students from around Edmonton and First Nations in Alberta attended the Headstrong Summit at amiskwaciy Academy. Headstrong is a national initiative to reduce the stigma of mental illness and provide education.
"Since 2014 we have engaged thousands of young people across Canada to not only learn about mental health, and to take what they’ve learned back to their communities to promote mental health and reduce stigma in their own schools," said Nathan Ip of Headstrong.
The summit gave students an opportunity to hear from a variety of speakers, many of whom have had their own mental health struggles.
"We want young people to take away the message that you can recover from mental illness and mental health struggles and there is always hope and that you can reach out for help," said Ip. "You can actually take steps to reduce stigma and make sure there’s hope not only for your mental health but for your friends and those around you."
"Recovery is really the focus of today’s summit."
According to Headstrong, by the age of 40, over 50 per cent of Canadians will experience a mental health struggle, a statistic that some of the students have already witnessed firsthand.
"I have a couple of family members who have mental illness and I want to learn how to help them," Grade 8 student Greysky Lameman said.
There were 10 schools represented at Thursday's summit.
