NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is fighting to save a groundbreaking, London-based website and youth engagement program, which shut down Friday due to lack of funding after three years of helping Ontario’s young people overcome their mental health problems.

At the Ontario Legislature today, Horwath sought a commitment from the Minister of Children and Youth Services, Deb Matthew, for the McGuinty government to invest in keeping www.mindyourmind.ca [0] in service rather than pulling the plug.

Pioneered by Family Service Thames Valley with 5,000 youth volunteer hours and seed funding from the Trillium Foundation, the website was receiving 60,000 visits a month prior to going dark May 1.

“It’s tragic that mindyourmind.ca has gone down during Children’s Mental Health Week. The website and youth engagement program has averted teen suicides and provided effective, early counseling and intervention for troubled children seeking help. Without this service available, many more Ontario children and youth will be tormented by mental health issues that are ignored and unassisted,” Horwath said.

Some 25,000 children and youth in Ontario require some form of mental health treatment, but only 55 per cent of them are being served by the McGuinty government’s under-funded programs, Horwath said.

“The Minister’s refusal to address the loss of mindyourmind.ca when directly questioned about it in the Legislature demonstrates a lack of government interest in improving mental health services for Ontario’s children and their families. The government clearly fails to understand the urgency of providing access to these services,” Horwath said.

“If outside funding partners cannot be found within the next few weeks, I believe it is the McGuinty government’s responsibility to provide funding to ensure this highly praised website service can be resurrected and sustained,” she added.

Horwath noted that the government’s own report, “The Roots of Youth Violence”, recommended an immediate injection of $200-million into mental health treatment for children to bolster successful programs like mindyourmind.ca, whose annual budget is $220,000.