January 28, 2021 is #BellLetsTalk Day
Bell Let’s Talk™ has been a huge success. Over 10 years, it has encouraged millions of Canadians to start a conversation, get engaged in an open discussion about mental illness, and help to find new ideas and hope for those who struggle. Raising awareness has been critical—just as crucial is getting kids with mental health challenges the support they need, when and where they need it. With waitlists becoming an epidemic in this country and more awareness of the challenges growing, getting that support has become even more difficult.
At Capitalize for Kids, when someone donates to us, competes in the Bay Street Games to fundraise for us or attends our conference, they are making a strategic investment in kids’ mental health. We don’t just hand out money to beneficiaries, we actually roll up our sleeves and work with front-line organizations to improve their services. We put the services of our pro-bono partners to work in order to supercharge our solutions. When we do grant capital to our partners, we take an investment manager-like approach and fund new technology or operational improvements that will ultimately help more kids access the services they need—and we fund these improvements for three years to prove they work and can stand on their own.
The challenge that we’ve undertaken is massive—kids and their families are not getting the help they need. Children’s Mental Health Ontario cites 36% of Ontario parents have sought help for their child; of those who did, 4 in 10 didn’t receive the help they needed or are still waiting for treatment. 50% of Ontario parents who have sought mental health help for their child have faced challenges, primarily due to long wait times. We believe that our kids deserve so much more—and hopefully, you do too.
As many people spend #BellLetsTalk Day talking about mental health, we thought this would be the perfect opportunity to highlight some of the improvements that are happening at organizations in the GTA and across the country. These investments in mental health services are having a real impact for countless kids and their families. Join the conversation by sharing the sample tweets below and help us get the word out. For every tweet, Bell will donate $0.05 towards mental health initiatives:
Click to Tweet: #BellLetsTalk about Capitalize for Kids helping What’s Up Walk-In® increase capacity and accessibility by building their virtual service offerings
Click to Tweet: #BellLetsTalk about Capitalize for Kids helping Carizon and Lutherwood reduce administrative burden through electronic medical record enhancements
Click to Tweet: #BellLetsTalk about Capitalize for Kids helping EveryMind increase the number of families seen annually by streamlining their scheduling and treatment process
These tweets only encompass a selection of the projects that have been completed or are nearing completion. Stay tuned for updates as we announce partnerships to help new agencies expand their services in 2021. Sign up to receive our newsletter through the ‘join our community’ form.
P.S. If you haven’t listened to our latest podcast episode with Mary Deacon, Founder and Inaugural Chair of Bell Let’s Talk, you can tune in here!