The Elmira Kiwanis Club began focusing on children’s and youth’s mental health in October of 2023.

We joined with Woolwich Counselling Centre to help with their Together for Mental Health event in May of 2024. About 1,000 people heard Corey Hirsch and Haley Wickenheiser speak on mental health, and participated in dozens of activities put on by local sports, arts and community organizations. Lives were saved that day.

We also connected with the amazing team at Gambit Technologies, who developed the revolutionary “AskEllyn” AI Chat for people impacted by breast cancer. They’re passionate about working with us to develop a free AI Chat for kids with mental health issues. A kid in crisis might be reluctant to contact a counsellor, but a chat on their phone is in their comfort zone. We have the financial backing to make this happen, and we’re hundreds of hours into getting it done.

The vision is that we turn the “moment” of the Together for Mental Health event into a MOVEMENT. Year-round, we work to get kids engaged in sports, arts, volunteering, clubs, etc., where they can get out and connect. We get messaging out around the community to raise awareness and reduce the stigma around mental health. It’s a “Together” movement to connect the municipality, counselling centre, sports organizations, churches and others on this mission. Woolwich Counselling Centre doesn’t have the resources to do that on an ongoing basis, nor do they have the finances to bring in top-level speakers every year. But Kiwanis has, and can, muster the resources to assist in spearheading, organizing and being the catalyst for this locally. Once we prove it locally, we’ll duplicate with the seven other clubs in our district; then across Ontario, Canada, and North America.