Donate
Sign In
Collaborate with us

Youth Mental Health Signature Initiative

Share this initiative

Key Details

Organisation Name

GreenShield

Location

30 Wellington St. West, Toronto
Canada

Website

Social

eMHIC Member Status

Community Member

At a Glance

Description

Greenshield’s Youth Mental Health initiative addresses long waits, navigation challenges and unaffordable therapy that leave many youth without care. Co-built with youth and community partners, the GreenShield+ ecosystem provides therapist matching and free, culturally appropriate mental health support for youth age 15-29.

Implementation Status

Scaling implementation

GreenShield is implementing this initiative nationwide across Canada with more than 22 youth mental health community partners, which provide diverse programs, supports, and services that reflect youths’ lived identities and preferred ways of accessing care.

Target Population

Equity Seeking Youth Aged 15-29

Young adults aged 15-29 who are racialized (BIPOC), low income, or 2SLGTBQI+

Impact & Outcomes

Annually
GreenShield’s impact measurement framework captures improvements in an individual’s health at three different levels (access to care, participation in a program or service, and improvement in overall health and well-being). The YMH initiative is currently focusing on equitable access and will demonstrate improvements in health and well-being as the initiative progresses over time. To date, 100,000+ youth have been connected to free, culturally appropriate mental health services and resources across Canada.
100,000+
youth connected to free, culturally appropriate care across Canada
TBD
Improvement in timely access to care
TBD
# of youth with reduction in anxiety/depression
TBD
% of youth who feel more resilient
100,000+
youth connected to free, culturally appropriate care across Canada
TBD
Improvement in timely access to care
TBD
# of youth with reduction in anxiety/depression
TBD
% of youth who feel more resilient
“I was more recently in care again, and this time I was using this support system that I learned more about and that I had been a part of shaping, which is GreenShield, and I was able to find a therapist who is closer to my social location, closer to my cultural background and whose lived experience resonates to mine.”

Saraansh Mehta - GreenShield Youth Mental Health Ambassador

Related Articles
Positive group of young friends having fun at public park
Following Their Lead: How Kids Help Phone Built Canada’s First National, Digital, Peer-to-Peer Support Service With and For Young People 
Read Article
All Articles

Interconnected Magazine

Now accepting submissions of interest for the upcoming issue.

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

Want to be featured?

Email [email protected]

Read the 2025 edition here

Initiative Overview

The Current Gap

Across Canada, young people are under increasing pressure, from academic demands and financial stress to uncertainty about the future.

More than 1.2 million youth are affected by mental illness, yet over half of those who need support are not receiving care. Wait times often stretch for months, private therapy is out of reach for many, and finding the right support can feel overwhelming, especially for youth who are already struggling.

This burden is not shared equally. Racialized youth, 2SLBGTQI+ youth, and young people from low-income households, face steeper barriers and fewer culturally appropriate options.

While community organizations are working hard to respond with care and commitment, systemic gaps in funding, coordination, and navigation can limit their reach.

Our Solution

GreenShield launched our Youth Mental Health signature initiative to respond to this urgent and growing need. In 2025, we focused on understanding the problem on a national scale and building a solution designed for and alongside youth.

Grounded in data and developed alongside community partners, the initiative launched with two foundational elements:

→ The Youth Mental Health Data Hub (https://www.youthdatahub.ca/), bringing together Canada’s leading youth mental health datasets into a single, publicly accessible dashboard that provides a national snapshot of youth mental health.
→ GreenShield’s Youth Mental Health Ecosystem (https://www.greenshield.ca/en-ca/cares/youth-mental-health), a centralized digital platform where youth can access timely, culturally appropriate mental health supports through GreenShield+.

Key Features

1

Rapid access to help

Simple and easy connection to a clinically trained therapist within 24 hours.

2

Inclusive mental health supports

Access to a roster of 2000 clinicians that collectively speak over 40 languages, reflecting diverse identities and backgrounds.

3

Free virtual therapy

Sponsored therapy hours so youth can get started right away regardless of insurance coverage or personal finances.

4

Connection to community programs and services

Quick connection to local and regional mental health supports that range from in-person support groups to online self-study modules to meet diverse preferences.

Collaboration in Action

Main Collaborators

Jack.org
Kids Help Phone
Center for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario
Becket Integrated Youth Services
Foundry Integrated Youth Services
Trans Wellness Ontario
Youth Association for Academics, Athletics and Character Education
National Association of Friendship Centres
La Fondation Tel-jeunes

Join Our Global Community

Three ways to get involved:

Choose the level that fits.

become a member

Key Learnings

We had three primary challenges when setting up the initiative.

– First, prioritization was difficult because the need for youth-focused mental health support is immense.
– Second, the healthcare and non-profit sectors in Canada are under-resourced and most players are not incentivized to collaborate.
– Third, Canada has a very diverse population so supports have to be customized to be useful, yet customization is very expensive and limits overall reach.
Our advice would be to conduct a lot of research at the start and do a lot of listening to the experts and incumbents within the space.

Simultaneously, spend just as much time listening to the people you’re trying to help because often times the experts are busy working on solutions the people don’t actually want and might not use.

Focus on collaboration to avoid duplication, competition and wasted resources.

Spend a lot of time understanding what your vision is and communicating it effectively.

Everything moves faster when people understand what you’re trying to do and how you’re doing it.
Our participation at eMHIC was very important because it helped us understand how to approach the problem in a different way and adopt learnings from other countries.

It also helped us promote awareness of our model so that we could get further recognition and buy-in from important parties in our own country.

Looking Ahead

We plan to continue scaling this initiative across Canada with multi-sectoral support from government, private sector and philanthropic organizations who are keen to join forces and address our nation’s youth mental health crisis.

We will continue to sponsor free therapy for the youth that need it most.

We will continue to financially support organizations that are reaching our country’s most vulnerable populations; and we will continue to collect data and insights that allow everyone to move resources to where they’re needed most.
We are always open to collaboration and feedback to make our initiative stronger and reach more youth.

We are actively looking for opportunities to partner with organizations to deliver free services to youth in Canada, to share mental health learnings and insights, and to ideate and create ground-breaking innovative programs that will achieve greater health outcomes.

If you’d like to collaborate or learn more please connect with Taharka Gibb via [email protected]
Our goal is to provide easily accessible timely mental health supports to youth today in hopes that in a few years we have a stronger generation of young leaders who feel equipped to navigate life’s challenges and obstacles.
1664331961401.jpg

Key Contact

Taharka Gibb
Director, Creating Shared Value & Impact Measurement
GreenShield

Email

[email protected]

Website

PROMOTION

Directory Banner Placements (9)