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We’re thrilled to support agencies as they test bold ideas in the pursuit of potential solutions for key challenges around mental health and addictions service quality and access. Whether they’re exploring a completely new idea or just rethinking an old way of doing things, we help ensure they have access to resources earmarked for innovation because it’s key to improving care and service experiences.
Innovation Initiatives
Our Innovation Initiatives support projects that address barriers such as wait time, culture and language, stigma, geography and health literacy. Successful applicants are supported with up to $75,000 to implement new evidence-based or promising practices that demonstrate potential for broader impact in the provincial child and youth mental health and addictions system. We also provide tailored coaching supports to implement and evaluate these initiatives.
New call for applications: 2025
We are now taking applications for the 2025 Innovation Initiatives grant cycle. This year, we’re focused on proposals that tackle the challenges of implementing or evaluating culturally responsive mental health and addictions programs for children, youth, and families facing systemic inequities. If you have a project idea that can drive real change in the mental health sector, we want to hear from you.
Browse previous projects
| 2023–24 |
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This year, we asked that projects implement and evaluate culturally responsive child and youth mental health and addictions programs. The selected projects will adapt programs to better meet the needs of racialized children, young people and their families here in Ontario. |
| 2021–22 |
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We asked the five selected project teams to address one or more key recommendations from our Transition to virtual care report, adding to or improving their virtual service offerings to better serve their clients now and post-pandemic. |
| 2019–20 |
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We narrowed our focus and supported seven projects specifically addressing access issues in their communities. |
| 2018–19 |
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We supported 10 innovative projects in organizations across the province. |
| 2017–18 |
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We supported six potential solutions to some of our sector's trickiest challenges. |
Impact grants
We’ve been working with Mental Health Research Canada to bridge the gap between research and practice by creating opportunities for community-based child and youth mental health agencies and academic researchers to work together to improve child and youth mental health and addictions services in Ontario. Our impact grants provide up to $100,000 for practical research or projects that have the potential to impact service quality and access. Each round of funding has a specific theme, based on timely priorities.
Browse previous projects
| Mental health, substance use and addictions (2023) |
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Young Ontarians and their families have a growing need for coordinated mental health and substance use health services, but high-quality, integrated care can be hard to find and access. For this funding opportunity, we challenged our sector to propose projects that would advance mental health, substance use and addictions care for young people and families in our province. |
| Northern communities (2021) |
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Accessing mental health and addictions services can be challenging, and even more so in remote or northern communities, where there are fewer service providers. That’s why we called on leaders in northern Ontario to propose innovative solutions with the potential to improve access to mental health services for children, young people and families in their communities. |
| COVID-19 response (2020) |
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The COVID-19 pandemic led many organizations to implement innovative solutions to support children, young people and families through uncertainty and physical distancing. We called on researchers and agencies to test out novel ideas that emerged in response to the pandemic. We specifically asked them to help us understand the mental health impacts of COVID-19 on children and young people, with a focus on families from vulnerable groups who experience challenges in accessing and receiving high-quality mental health care. |
| E-mental health (2020) |
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We couldn’t have imagined how timely it would turn out to be when, in early 2020, we offered three grants to explore the use of technology to enhance or support child and youth mental health in Ontario. |
Fellowships and studentships
We’re proud to partner with Mental Health Research Canada (MHRC) to provide studentships and fellowships to enable new and young researchers in Ontario to engage in innovative and impactful mental health research.
MHRC regularly offers mental health impact studentships jointly with Mitacs to students across Canada at various stages of their academic careers. This time around, we joined in to help support Ontario students to help close the gap between evidence and practice by strengthening relationships with agencies.
Browse previous projects
| 2023–24 studentships |
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Three $15,000 mental health impact studentships were awarded to students at various stages of their academic careers, working alongside their academic supervisors and a community partner organization. The 4- to 6-month project terms began in May. |
| 2022–23 fellowships |
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Five 1-year-long post-graduate fellowships were awarded to recipients that shared their time between their academic institutions and community-based agencies to ensure that their projects would be useful for service providers and relevant to client needs. |
Apply for funding
Do you have ideas about how to address the Ontario child and youth mental health and addictions system's most pressing priorities?
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