TALK Project

Partnering with educational/community organizations throughout Niagara, TALK ( Teams of Adults Listening to Kids ), brings adults together to listen to and support youth in an effort to address victimization, including bullying, racism, dating violence, and homo/transphobia. The project also serves to promote understanding of children/youth mental health/illness and substance use. TALK partners include all four Boards of Education, mental health providers, police, youth-at-risk agencies, public health school nurses, and community organizations including the YWCA, the Niagara Suicide Prevention Coalition, the John Howard Society, the Niagara Health System, Rainbow Youth Niagara, Carousel Players, and Brock University. No single agency or organization, working in isolation, can create the sort of lasting impact that’s required. In joining forces with so many agencies from across Niagara, TALK has acknowledged that only a team approach is capable of making a lasting impact. By bringing stakeholders together, TALK is able to mobilize the community to develop systemic and sustainable ways to ensure safe, inclusive and caring communities and schools. During the life of the project, TALK has made countless presentations and provided training and assistance to students, education and support staff, parents, community workers, with audiences sometime reaching 500 or more. TALK has also supported and participated in many celebrations related to Standing Up To Bullying and Pink Shirt Days. Integral to the work of TALK are the tenets that children and youth have the power, if engaged and provided with the necessary tools and support, to change their schools, their community and their world.