Statement of Need

Building the right path,
toward a brighter future.

The Sunshine Coast of British Columbia is simultaneously blessed with a host of high quality healthcare services and workers, and critically lacking in mental health & substance use treatment facilities, of which there are none publicly available at present. This is a life saving resource necessary for all communities, and in particular our First Nation populations, due to the ongoing and acute effects of intergenerational trauma, a direct result of the profound and lasting damage reverberating from Canada’s colonial past.

Today we mark a critical change in British Columbia. Today, we are partnering with aligned institutions and people of conscience to build the right path, toward a brighter future.

What are we combatting in British Columbia?

In 2024, the rate of toxic drug events among First Nation female youth was 20 times higher than other resident female youth. Pause for that statistic. Twenty. Times. Higher.
First Nations youth comprised 24.4 per cent of the total number of youth deaths in BC in 2021-2024, despite only comprising 4.4 per cent of the BC youth population.
Vancouver Coastal First Nations youth made up 29.6 per cent of the region’s total deaths in 2023-2024, despite comprising just 2.3 per cent of the Vancouver Coastal health youth population.