Ember Innovations

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Key Details

Organisation Name

Ember Innovations

Location

51 Huia Road, Ōtāhuhu, Auckland 1062
New Zealand

Social

eMHIC Member Status

Community Member

At a Glance

Description

Ember Innovations is a purpose driven team of social innovators, systems strategists, and mental wellbeing advocates. We are changing the way Aotearoa responds to mental wellbeing – creating the conditions for bold ideas to grow, communities to lead, and systems to transform.

Implementation Status

Early-stage development

Alongside our venture support work with Mental Health innovators and Research Grants, Ember Innovations has completed two Challenge-Led Innovation processes, both focused on acupressure points in the mental health system.

Target Population

Mental Health Innovators

Changemakers developing and delivering innovative solutions with a focus on improving mental health and wellbeing.

Mental Health Innovation and Lived Experience Researchers

Purpose-driven researchers, guided by lived experience, turning evidence into practical solutions that improve wellbeing.

Ember Research Grants create the space for innovative, early-stage research that addresses unmet needs in mental health and addiction. What makes Ember’s support unique is that it isn’t only about funding projects. It’s about helping to shape a future where responses to addiction and mental health concerns are more compassionate, accessible, and effective.

Mental Health Innovation Research Alumna, Dr Jennifer Jiyun Park

I was able to secure a permanent academic position after receiving this funding, and my leadership of this project has led to further work exploring attitudes towards vaccination, using a global sample of 5,000 people, with my current colleagues.

Lived Experience Research Alumna, Dr Stephanie Gomes-Ng

The support has been transformative for our mahi and empowered us to launch a program that not only offered immersive, experiential activities but also fostered trust, self-awareness, and a deeper connection with te moana. This success has reinforced our commitment to innovation in delivering culturally grounded, transformative experiences, and has positioned us for potential nationwide adoption.

Innovator, Jemarl Paerata, Te Kaiarahi

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Sparking Change: The Ember Innovations Story - A Journey of Innovation, Community, and Transformation in Mental Health

Interconnected Magazine

Now accepting submissions of interest for the upcoming issue.

Interconnected is the world’s only digital mental health magazine.

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Email [email protected]

Initiative Overview

The Current Gap

Only one in three people experiencing mental distress or addiction receive support in Aotearoa. Too often, mental health services are fragmented and lived experience is undervalued. Ember Innovations creates the conditions for systems change and innovation.

By supporting changemakers, sparking new models in areas of opportunity, and centering lived experience, we take a holistic approach to systems innovation—helping reshape how mental health support is imagined, designed and delivered.

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Our Solution

Ember Innovations connects changemakers with the resources, funding and support to drive mental health innovation. We collaborate with tertiary institutions to fund innovative research and diverse projects led by researchers with lived experience. We also mobilise communities around specific mental health challenges, focusing on the needs of identifiable communities and enabling locally relevant solutions.

By advocating for lived expertise and providing wrap-around support, we help turn promising ideas into meaningful, systems-level change.

Key Features

1

Research Grants

We fund projects grounded in lived experience, mātauranga Māori and emerging technologies, ensuring innovation is shaped by diverse perspectives.

2

Challenge-led Innovation

We collaborate with and provide holistic support to communities for the development of innovative solutions to identifiable challenges or opportunity areas.

3

Moemoeā

Moemoeā nurtures an innovation community that’s grounded in culture, creating space for wānanga, connection and innovation guided by indigenous knowledge and future aspirations.

Collaboration in Action

Main Collaborators

Northable
THOON
University of Auckland
Ngāpuhi Iwi Social Services
Foundation North
Spectrum Foundation
Perpetual Guardian
FASD-Can
Acorn Neurodiversity
Northland College
Te Rourou
Ara Taiohi
The King’s Trust Aotearoa
Auckland Council

Join Our Global Community

Three ways to get involved:

Choose the level that fits.

Key Learnings

• The system must change, be redesigned rather than patched up, and that lived experience is where all services begin.
• Communities have the answers and that lasting solutions come from listening to many different voices and experiences.
• Funding has not kept pace with population growth, that investment must be reconsidered, and that support should exist where the need is.
Find bold partners, looking for connections across systems, listen to the experts (lived expertise being central), get started and be open to learning…
Mental health challenges don’t respect borders, and the most useful things we’ve learned in Aotearoa – about lived experience research, challenge-led innovation, and bridging community knowledge into systems – only sharpen when tested against what others are learning elsewhere.

Ember Innovations stays connected internationally because the scale of these problems demands it, and because good ideas deserve to travel both ways.

Looking Ahead

Challenge-led innovation will remain our primary model because it starts from the lived reality of the problem rather than a predetermined solution, keeping our work accountable to the people it’s meant to serve and catalysing innovation in the most impactful way.
All people in Aotearoa should have access to the mental health and wellbeing support they need to thrive, support that is equitable, effective, and shaped by the people it’s meant for.
eMHIC Directory_Key Contacts

Key Contact

Anya Satyanand
Executive Director
Ember Innovations

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