We gathered here today with groups from various faith communities and various service care providers to talk about mental illness and how to bridge the gap between faith communities and service providers because right now what we see is that there's a kind of a Great Divide. Can we, as service providers, get into the faith-based places and start delivering some services to go to the mental health and addiction clients? So what are the areas that we can develop on and understand the different faith communities better so we can serve a larger population and do it in a way that's sensitive? Often we are stuck in our individual places and we don't connect with each other. Separated we can't do a lot of supporting, but together we can form that wonderful support for them and their families and create, as one of the speakers said the appeal that we hope for. We are very diverse in Peel Region and that means we need to reach out to different communities and find out how we could get to the members of their communities and help them out when it comes to mental health issues. And we know from experience that sometimes members of the Mental Health Committee haven't always had a very positive view of the role of faith in a person's life, but thankfully those attitudes are really changing and it's great to see the fruit of that inclusiveness and openness. The issue that we confront and that our service providers have faced, you know leaders of the faith community, issues that are complex, so no one group can solve or know those issues without connecting and networking and working with, you know, the other. The Peel Service Collaborative identified the value of the faith community and the need for cooperation and recognition across that board, and to me that was an innovation. I've been in the Christian ministry for 42 years and I'd never heard of anything like that before. So both sides acknowledge some of the shortcomings and I think from now on they will build on how to overcome the shortcomings. How was the morning? Being around the table with faith leaders, learning from them, I'm getting to hear their perspectives. You know, I hear this from clients, but it was really, it was great to hear it from them directly. It really gave me one of the first opportunities I've had to hear directly from faith leaders about the experiences they're having in the community around stigma, around mental health, around addictions. I'm excited that the people started to realize that talking about mental health is not shameful. We have finally been able to organize an event of this caliber, of the stature, at a faith-based organization. There is great hope, therefore, for breaking down taboos of this kind in our community. I'm excited about lots of things that came out of this event and the first initial discourse, changing the language, changing service delivery, connecting clients to not-shaming services, getting fed, forming mentorships, including the voices of culture and different voices. We're coming from different perspectives. We're doing the same kind of work in terms of supporting people in their life journey, and whether it's from a faith perspective or a service provider perspective, we're kind of on the same team. And it would be awesome to be able to work together more effectively. We have broken the barriers among different religious and cultural communities to understand what other faith groups think about and where we can cooperate together. Recognizing that tension also allows for transformation and that is where we are headed in Peel. We are wanting to transform health for our children and youth collectively, where no child falls through the cracks, where no youth goes unsupported, no matter what aspect of diversity they bring. It really boggled my mind to see the differences in the diversity that were present in this room and all talking together. The world tells us that we can't do that, the world tells us that we are divided and that we can only be divided and that we can't come together, but events such as this it tells you we can come together. If we care enough about the people that we all are associated with and love, we can come together. I think it's that so many people want to be part of this journey and so many people came out today and want to continue to be part of this journey, which is great. What I do hope comes from this event is that it'll be ongoing dialogue and discussion with faith providers and service providers, so that we can have dialogue around providing best services for youth and children experiencing mental health (problems). Each one of us has a collective responsibility for creating the kind of Peel Region that we would like to see, where inclusion becomes a reality, where health is complete health for all involved, mental health included.