After just a few minutes with Carly Gasparini, it becomes clear that this is one young lady with a passion for life and a real concern for young people.

Carly is currently attending Lockerby Composite Secondary School in Grade 11. Two years ago, while in Grade 9, she was asked to attend a "Visioning Workshop" sponsored by the Northern Ontario Suicide Prevention Network. As a result of the workshop, Carly found herself readily volunteering to initiate the establishment of a sub-committee called "Teens Against Teen Suicide (T.A.T.S.)".

"When they asked for a volunteer to form the group, I decided that this was something I really wanted to do, so I put my hand up," explained Carly. "A lot of people looked at me like, ‘What can you do? You’re only in Grade 9.’ But I really wanted to help people who were feeling bad about themselves."

Today, the committee consists of 24 students representing all four school boards. On November 6, over 200 students from all schools gathered for an all-day workshop at the Caruso Club to set up a protocol and strategy for establishing TATS groups within individual schools. They will be setting up discussion sessions and working on the establishment of an effective support network over the next several months.

The goal of TATS is to provide an increased level of awareness and training of young people in dealing with suicide prevention issues,

"We have to let students know that they are not alone. That lots of others are going through tough times as well and are looking for support," Carly commented.

"Sometimes as a young person you just feel like crap and you feel like there is nowhere to go for help. We don’t want to be looked at as a case, and there are teens who are afraid to tell others how they feel because they don’t want ‘frantic help’," explained Carly about how young people are often afraid of confiding in professional counselors for fear of them overreacting to the issue. "We don’t want to be looked at as a case, just as a person."

Indeed, Carly has spoken to numerous young people and almost all of them have admitted that there have been times when they have thought, just for a moment, that it would be easier if they weren’t alive. However, when they realize the love and support they have around them, those thoughts go away and they get on with dealing with the challenges of live in a positive manner.

We can all learn a lot from the work of ‘Teens Against Teen Suicide’. It doesn’t matter how old you are, or what your situation in life, "Being nice to each other and making people feel good about themselves is the first step" in being human. Bullying, teasing, putting others down, are all things which destroy an individual’s self-esteem. Once that happens, a person becomes weak and loses the ability to fend off difficulties. If there is no one close to turn to, it can lead to suicide in the most severe cases.

Carly points out that the members of her group certainly don’t consider themselves to be experts, but they want to deal with the subject in a positive way.

"It is a subject which needs to be looked at. We know that nobody really wants to talk about suicide, but it is important that we bring everything out into the open so that young people who are asking themselves questions about life have an opportunity to talk to people who understand," Carly stated.

Life is not easy. Everyone faces personal challenges almost every single day and we all have to come up with ways of coping with those challenges. What Carly and her friends are discovering is that one of the best ways of coping with your own difficulties is to help others with theirs. No matter how rough things may seem in your own life, when you put it in perspective and compare yourself with others, you will inevitably discover that there is nothing you can’t get through. What’s more, you will discover that there are a lot of nice people in this world who are ready and willing to help out when you reach out to them.

Carly speaks with a great deal of wisdom as she explains, "I ask myself all the time, Who am I going to smile at today?"

She has learned from personal experience that a smile from someone - anyone - is all that is needed to make you forget your problems for a moment. A smile makes you feel important - that someone else recognizes that you’re alive.

"It is selfish of us not to make someone else’s life better," Carly said as we were coming to the end of our meeting.

We can all come up with alarming statistics about mental illness. In fact, so many people suffer from some form of clinical depression or stress related disease, that many are afraid to bring up the subject because of the stigma which is attached to the problem - as if one is somewhat less of a person if he/she is not considered to be mentally stable.

Let’s all make a commitment to do our part to make the life of those around us just a little bit better today. When someone reaches out to you for support, be there for them.

Until the next time...