Youth Mental Health Fund

Children’s Aid Foundation of Canada’s Youth Mental Health Fund provides funding to address urgent and complex mental health challenges of young people transitioning from permanent care so that they can achieve their employment and education goals. According to our partners, mental health challenges can be a barrier to achieving these goals.

Program Components

Funds can be used to:

• Pay for therapy and/or counseling on an individual or group basis or to meet other mental health needs like medication.
• Support other initiatives or programs that address the urgent and complex mental health challenges for youth in and from permanent care.
• Remove barriers getting in the way of youth accessing mental health assistance (transportation, child care etc.).

Most initiatives funded use a combination of approaches, but funding is being used to support priorities such as:

• Establishing a mental health navigator at a youth-serving agency to help support youth to connect to practitioners and/or to identify community resources and then help them remove barriers to accessing those services.
• Providing funding for practitioners so that youth can access individual services immediately, rather than having to spend months on waiting lists.
• Developing in-house capacity to treat youth individually or in group sessions.
• Leveraging existing partnerships for better navigation and access to appropriate mental health supports.
• Providing Indigenous cultural supports, such as access to traditional healers, elders and land-based teachings.
• Identifying and connecting young people to mental health practitioners specializing in supporting youth who identify as Black, racialized, or as part of the LGBTIQ2S+ community.

Eligibility

• Young people transitioning from permanent care aged 16-29.

Key Outcome

Stronger and more resilient youth from care, leading to increased educational attainment and better employment outcomes.

Interested in participating?

Calgary

Tiffany Newman [email protected]

Toronto and GTA

Erik Wexler [email protected]

Richmond or Vancouver

Anisha  [email protected]

Kenora

Michelle Francis [email protected]

Hiawatha

Kim Scott [email protected]

Fredericton or Saint John

Susan Laver [email protected]

Winnipeg

Kelly Zukewich [email protected]Cathy Herrera [email protected]

Yellowknife

Brian Machona [email protected]