{"id":73997,"date":"2021-02-24T11:10:40","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T16:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=73997"},"modified":"2025-10-10T13:38:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T17:38:29","slug":"royal-ottawa-award-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/royal-ottawa-award-mental-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Carleton Master’s Sociology Student to Receive Royal Ottawa Award for Mental Health Work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Carleton Master's Sociology Student to Receive Royal Ottawa Award for Mental Health Work\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Charlotte Smith, a Carleton University master\u2019s student in Sociology<\/a>, has faced overwhelming challenges throughout her life: childhood sexual abuse, homelessness, incarceration, drug dependency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undaunted, she has channelled these experiences into her academic, advocacy and activist work, developing research projects to address youth homelessness, creating a bursary to help homeless youth attend Carleton, and delivering food, phones and other essential items to homeless and precariously housed youth who are struggling during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Charlotte
Charlotte Smith<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For these actions, and for sharing her story of recovery<\/a> to help eliminate the stigma surrounding mental illness, Smith will be awarded the Personal Leader for Mental Health award at the Royal Ottawa Foundation<\/a> for Mental Health\u2019s 2021 Inspiration Awards<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIt can be re-traumatizing, embarrassing and awkward talking so publicly about your mental health and substance use issues, so it\u2019s comforting when someone tells you that you\u2019re not just oversharing, you\u2019re actually making a small difference in other people\u2019s lives,\u201d says Smith, who will be joined on the Inspiration Awards virtual podium by Carleton President Benoit-Antoine Bacon, winner of the Royal\u2019s Transformational Leader award.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cGetting an award like this is fantastic, but there are so<\/em> many people doing so much important work on mental health and substance use,\u201d says Smith, who last year won a Community Builder Award from the United Way East Ontario<\/a> for her volunteer efforts in COVID times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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