Fifty students from across the North attended a youth mental health summit at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Saturday. The Northern Jack Summit, an event put on by Jack.org, is part of a national effort to train and empower young people in how to think about mental health.

Co-organizers Shania Clark, a fourth year nursing student at Aurora College and Shelby Clarke, a student in the social work program drove the proceedings which included Kiera-Dawn Kolson as key speaker. Clark said in the North, there are unique challenges in mental health services, as they are often only available in capital cities if they exist at all.

The summit also touched on suicide rates among Indigenous peoples, the problems of wait times for mental health services and the need for greater cultural sensitivity and appropriate language when discussing mental health.