How a Toronto project is tackling violence by helping youth talk about past trauma

Dizzy Ricamara remembers the feeling of being 13 and losing peers to violence in her own community.

"I just remember not seeing friends coming back to school and not seeing them in the playground again," said Ricamera, who grew up in Malvern, a neighbourhood in Toronto's northeast corner.

"There was just this silence -- like no one really talked about it." 

Ricamara said it took years to understand that not talking about the trauma she felt had a negative impact on her.

"I think that ... not being able to talk about how I'm really feeling or not having the tools to do that really set me back," she told CBC News.

She says wasn't until she found out about the Community Healing Project (CHP) a few years ago that she was able to navigate those feelings by talking to people.

"I felt like I just had never been in a room with people who literally all have experienced the same experiences I had in terms of community violence," said Ricamara. "It gave me a space to really trust somebody."

Now 27, Ricamera graduated from the CHP in 2020. The program allows young people exposed to trauma to process it and learn how to cope. They then go back into their communities and share the lessons they've learned, either as peer mentors or through other initiatives. At the heart of the program, which recently started its 10th cohort, is the understanding that trauma can lead to more bloodshed.

Programs like these are more important than ever as violence has plagued the start of 2022 in Toronto, including eight homicides since the start of January. With every incident, program members say, there are ripple effects within a community.

The program, which gets federal funding, operates in partnership with the City of Toronto and Stella's Place — a non-profit that connects youth with the mental health supports they need. 

"Violence is a huge issue in this city at its core, and the communities that we're recruiting from are exposed to violence at a higher rate," said Siman Ibrahim, program manager for the Community Healing Project.

"A lot of us shared similar experiences where we have lost loved ones — close ones to us," she added.

"The main goal and the scope of it is to address trauma at its root cause and increase the mental health literacy of young people."

About 25 students aged 18 to 29 go through a three-month program that connects them with peers to talk about mental health, trauma, grief and loss. They learn tools that help them cope and get connected with resources, then go back into the community as mentors to spread the knowledge through workshops.