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MENTAL HEALTH

720,000+

people die due to suicide every year 🔗

40%

students had persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness 🔗

1 in 8

people in the world live with a mental disorder 🔗

Mental health is often misunderstood and under prioritized. Explore how you can break stigma, support well-being, and push for better care in every community. 

SUBTOPICS

Definitions, Diagnoses, and Lived Realities
Mental Health Stigma and Criminalization
Practicing Presence: Mindfulness
Trauma, Triggers and the Healing Journey
Social Media and Mental Health
Holistic Approaches to Mental Health

MEET OUR AMBASSADORS FOR MENTAL HEALTH

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António Ferreira

Mental Health Advocate

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Hailey Hardcastle

Mental Health Advocate

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Shreeya Giri

Founder of Happy Minds

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Mary Lawal

Founder of NAMI On Campus

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Ally Zlatar

Founder of The Starving Artist

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Anjani Sharma

Founder of Minds Without Borders

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Vee Silas

Founder of In My Head

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Vincent Simon van Grondelle

Founder of Iguality

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Gillian Sofia Johnson

Founder of Recovery Meet-Ups

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Te Manaia Jennings

Public Speaker for the International Association of Youth Mental Health Conference in Copenhagen

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Kyle Moore

Head of Mental Health and Labs Program Manager at the League of Innovators

OUR PARTNERS FOR MENTAL HEALTH

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Dr. Chyrell D. Bellamy

Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University

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António Ferreira

MENTAL HEALTH ACTIVIST

United Kingdom

António Ferreira is a prolific, multi-award-winning mental health activist, campaigner, public speaker, disruptor, and expert by experience. Drawing from his journey through mental ill-health as a teenager—including diagnoses of ‘Undifferentiated Schizophrenia’ and ‘Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder’—António has transformed personal trauma into powerful advocacy, driven by the belief in “turning lemons into lemonade.” A fierce anti-racism advocate within the mental health sector, António campaigns to reframe how the UK addresses mental health in racialized communities. He currently studies Psychology with Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Essex while advising organisations across the public and private sectors using his lived experience. His influence spans national media and policy spaces. António recently joined the Prince and Princess of Wales for a BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat special on mental health, and he played a critical role in advising EastEnders (a popular TV show) on a schizophrenia storyline involving a young Black man, ensuring authentic representation. António also led a groundbreaking campaign challenging performative tokenism among senior leaders in the mental health charity space. The movement gained widespread support, including hundreds of petition signatures within its first month, and drew attention from high-profile mental health CEOs. Bold, visionary, and unafraid to challenge the status quo, António Ferreira continues to reshape the mental health conversation in the UK.

Hailey Hardcastle

MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCATE

USA

Hailey Hardcastle is a nationally recognized mental health advocate and two-time TEDx speaker. At 18, she led a student coalition that successfully passed a groundbreaking Oregon law allowing students to take mental health days as excused absences—one of the first of its kind in the U.S. Since then, 10 additional states have implemented similar policies, with five more currently considering legislation. Hailey’s advocacy stems from her lived experience with trauma-induced anxiety and has helped reshape how schools nationwide address mental health. She served as a founding member and policy advisor for the Oregon School-Based Health Alliance and as Secretary of Mental Health for the Associated Students of the University of Oregon. She recruits and mentors youth leaders to develop and advocate for mental health policies, ensuring the movement remains student-led and sustainable. She has spoken at big conferences with audiences reaching thousands and her TEDx talk, “Why Students Should Have Mental Health Days,” has been viewed over 4 million times. Hailey’s work has been featured in The New York Times, BBC, People, ABC News, Good Morning America, The Washington Post, and Teen Vogue, which named her one of 2019’s “21 Under 21: Young Women Changing the World.” 

Shreeya Giri

FOUNDER OF HAPPY MINDS

Nepal

Shreeya Giri is a Nepali mental health advocate and the founder of Happy Minds, Nepal’s first culturally contextual digital mental health platform. Sparked by her own experience of depression during the COVID-19 pandemic and the lack of support available to Nepalis worldwide, she launched Happy Minds in 2021. Since then, it has reached over 57,000 individuals in 29 countries, offering multilingual, trauma-informed counseling, helplines, and Nepal’s first Employee Assistance Program (EAP) with partners like Unilever and Nabil Bank. The platform also runs awareness campaigns addressing men’s mental health, suicide prevention, and postpartum depression. Shreeya was named to Forbes Asia’s 30 Under 30 list in 2024 and has spoken globally, including at the UNDP Youth Co:Lab and the Osaka Expo 2025. Her work uniquely bridges clinical care and cultural empathy, supporting LGBTQ+ individuals, migrant workers, and rural youth. Shreeya’s vision is to embed culturally-rooted and inclusive mental health care into global systems through AI tools, public policy, and digital self-help rooted in Nepali traditions.

Mary Sawal

FOUNDER OF NAMI ON CAMPUS

USA

Mary Lawal is a youth mental health activist, suicide prevention advocate, psychology student, and the founder and president of NAMI On Campus PGCC—the first NAMI (The nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to those living with mental illness) college club in Maryland. Mary has participated in multiple panel discussions, including The Sponsor Panel, where she shared her testimony with legislators in Annapolis advocating for funding the 988 mental health and crisis hotline. As a NAMI Next Gen alumna, she continues to collaborate with fellow youth advocates, using her lived experience to shape conversations around mental health and policy reform. A highlight of her advocacy journey was testifying at the United States Capitol during a congressional hearing on teen girls’ mental health, hosted by congresswomen from the Democratic Women’s Caucus. Her work has also led to media appearances on CBS Baltimore and LiveNow from Fox News, as well as features in Rotary Magazine and The Baltimore Sun. Mary is committed to building a culture of care, resilience, and conversation on mental health, ensuring young people know they’re never alone and that their voices matter in driving policy and systemic change

Ally Zlatar

FOUNDER OF THE STARVING ARTIST

Canada / United Kingdom

Ally Zlatar is an artist, scholar and activist. She is the founder of The Starving Artist; an artist initiative that utilizes creative voices as a way to create advocacy and systemic reform. She also founded The Starving Artist Scholarship Fund which helps people access inpatient mental health treatment. Her “This Body of Mine” campaign explores migrant experiences through creative voices and has helped support individuals and artists from refugee-seeking backgrounds globally. Ally Zlatar has received numerous accolades for humanitarian work; such as the Forbes 30 Under 30  for Social Impact (Asia, 2025), Commonwealth Innovation Awards (2023), UNWomen 30 for 2030 (2024), winner of The Princess Diana Legacy Award (2021), King Hamad Award for Youth Empowerment (2022), the Lieutenant Governor’s Community Volunteer Award from the Ontario Government of Canada (2023) and also special recognition from The British Citizen Award (2022). She holds a BFA in Visual Art & Art History from Queen’s University & an MLitt Curatorial Practice and Contemporary Art from the Glasgow School of Art. Her Doctorate in Creative Arts was completed at the University of Southern Queensland focusing on embodied experiences of mental illness in contemporary art. Zlatar is a Lecturer at the University of  Sharjah and has taught at the University of Glasgow, KICL London, and the University of Essex (UEIC).

Anjani Sharma

FOUNDER OF MINDS WITHOUT BORDERS

USA

Anjani Sharma is an 18-year-old changemaker, policy advocate, and founder of Minds Without Borders, a youth-led nonprofit advancing global mental health through policy, storytelling, and education. As a student senator at the University of Florida and a former Prudential Emerging Visionary, she has advocated for equity-centered legislation in Florida and Washington, D.C., mobilizing youth to challenge outdated mental health policies and championing community-driven solutions from the slums of India to the halls of Congress.

Under her leadership, Minds Without Borders has impacted over 2,000 young people globally through policy campaigns, educational programs, and innovation-driven resilience kits. Anjani’s work lives at the intersection of public health, youth power, and cross-border solidarity.

She is deeply passionate about bringing young people into global spaces and building coalitions across sectors. Whether hosting policy roundtables, mentoring students, or representing her district at advocacy summits, Anjani believes that true impact happens when we center lived experience, and dare to dream beyond borders. You can connect with Anjani on LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/anjani-sharma-5b9b46319/. 

Vee Silas

FOUNDER OF IN MY HEAD

USA

Vee Silas is a mental health advocate, youth leader, and founder of In My Head Support Group (IMH), a telehealth and onsite initiative offering mental health support, global citizenship training, and skill development for youth. Under her leadership, IMH expanded from one to three locations in a year, reaching over 6,000 young people and leading programs in 30+ secondary schools. Through strategic fundraising, she secured over $10,000 to scale operations and enhance outreach. Its programs include monthly mental health support groups, secondary school outreach for SS2 and SS3 students, and hands-on skills empowerment sessions to reduce depression linked to financial instability. The organization also aligns with SDGs 3, 4, 8, and 17, addressing both mental health access and economic inclusion. IMH aims to expand to all six geopolitical zones in Nigeria by 2026. Vee is a Kofi Annan Changemaker and UNESCO APCEIU Youth Leader using these platforms to advance inclusive education and youth mental wellbeing across Africa .She was also a Team Leader at the Forever Alive Foundation where she helped people with their depression. 

Vincent Simon van Grondelle

FOUNDER OF IGUALITY

Spain

Vincent Simon van Grondelle is a mental health advocate, social innovator, and founder of Iguality, a nonprofit based in Catalonia, Spain, focused on making mental health support more accessible, community-driven, and innovative—especially for marginalized and underserved populations. Since founding Iguality in 2022, he has led the organization to deliver free mental health services, using a three-pillar model: psychosocial support, sports and social belonging, and advocacy and awareness-raising. Under Vincent’s leadership, Iguality’s volunteer therapists provide individual and group support, integrated with social work and partnerships that offer holistic care. Through weekly sports activities like football and running, Iguality fosters physical and emotional wellbeing while building community. Its advocacy initiatives include research, public campaigns, and events that elevate the voices of communities often excluded from traditional mental health systems. Populations served include migrants and refugees, LGBTQ+ individuals, domestic violence survivors, unemployed individuals, and at-risk youth. Vincent’s work is informed by his background in social work, data analysis, nonprofit management, political science, and philosophy. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Social Work (Amsterdam) and dual master’s degrees in Political Philosophy and Communication Science (Barcelona). Alongside Iguality, he leads VSG Consulting, supporting nonprofits and small businesses in strategy, operations, and digital transformation. His experience spans organizations across the Netherlands, South Africa, Suriname, Greece, and Spain.

Gillian Sofia Johnson

FOUNDER OF RECOVERY MEET-UPS

USA

Named one of Teen Vogue’s 21 Under 21 Most Revolutionary Teens, Gillian Sofia Johnson is a dedicated nonprofit founder, strategist, and youth mental health advocate. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Riley’s Way Foundation, contributing to both the Strategic Planning and Programming Committees, where she advances youth-led changemaking and mentorship. In 2021, after undergoing a Partial Hospitalization Program, she founded Recovery Meet-Ups, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit offering virtual peer support to teens navigating eating disorder recovery—regardless of financial barriers, diagnosis, or symptom severity. Through weekly sessions, she helped create a space for participants to share successful coping strategies, offer mutual support, and collaborate on group initiatives to address systemic mental health issues. She is currently studying Finance and Political Science at Purdue University, doing work in consulting, and had previously studied International Affairs at The George Washington University. She strongly believes that while it takes a village to move any mission forward, not everyone is willing to be a villager—and encourages others to build meaningful networks and communities. She welcomes connection via LinkedIn or email at john3952@purdue.edu to talk about consulting, activism, Etherea, or even a new phrase in a different language.

Te Manaia Jennings

PUBLIC SPEAKER FOR THE International Association of Youth Mental Health Conference in Copenhagen

New Zealand

Te Manaia Jennings (Ngāti Maniapoto, Te Arawa, Tūhoe) is a visual artist and youth mental health facilitator from Aotearoa New Zealand whose work bridges creativity, psychology, and cultural identity. Her practice is rooted in the belief that art is more than expression, it is a tool for healing, resilience, and transformation. Raised in Rotorua and now working across the Franklin region, Jennings designs and delivers creative wellbeing programmes for tamariki in schools, blending karakia, storytelling, movement, and art therapy with psychological frameworks such as Te Whare Tapa Whā (Māori model of holistic wellbeing) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). She has created original characters and resources; from Manu Marīe the calm bird to gratitude jars and “Flexible Brain” medals -which help children explore their emotions and build lifelong coping strategies. Internationally recognized as a keynote speaker at the International Association of Youth Mental Health Conference in Copenhagen, Jennings’ voice has been celebrated in the New York Times bestselling Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls. Her artwork has been exhibited across Aotearoa and she continues to expand her creative practice through solo exhibitions and global collaborations. Now emerging as one of the Pacific’s most compelling young artists, Jennings is committed to weaving together Māori wisdom, psychology, and art to empower youth globally and shape a more compassionate future.

Kyle Moore

HOST OF LIFE'S A WRECK, Head of Mental Health and Labs
Program Manager at the League of Innovators

Canada

Kyle Moore is a Canadian podcaster and mental health advocate amplifying candid lived experience stories. He hosts Life’s a Wreck, a show with seven seasons and approximately one hundred episodes and a near-perfect rating across all podcasting platforms. He brings conversations that shatter stigma to the mainstream, featuring guests ranging from Red Bull ice climbing legend Will Gadd to national and provincial decision makers who shape mental health policy, including current and former Ministers of Mental Health and Addictions and CBC’s Sickboy cohost Jeremie Saunders. Launched in 2019, the podcast blends curiosity, humour, and research to make mental health feel human, practical, and approachable. Off mic, Kyle builds programs that put founder wellbeing at the centre of entrepreneurship as Head of Mental Health and Labs Program Manager at the League of Innovators, Canada’s largest community of entrepreneurs under 30. A Sport Media graduate from Toronto Metropolitan University, he uses storytelling to open doors, speaking with students, communities, and creators across the country about mental illness, wellbeing and performance. Whether he is guiding tough conversations or celebrating small wins, Kyle’s mission is simple. He gives people the tools, language, and confidence to navigate life’s messiness and reminds us that the wreck is worth celebrating.

Dr. Chyrell D. Bellamy

PROFESSOR OF PSYCHIATRY AT YALE UNIVERSITY

USA

Dr. Chyrell D. Bellamy, PhD, MSW, is a Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University and Director of the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health. She also serves as Director of Peer Support Services and Research and leads the Yale Lived Experience Transformational Leadership Academy (LET(s)Lead). With over three decades of experience, Dr. Bellamy’s work centers on community-driven research, equity in mental health care, peer-led interventions, and leadership development for people with lived experience of mental illness, trauma, addiction, and incarceration. She is principal investigator on numerous NIH-, PCORI-, and SAMHSA-funded studies, including Harambee, a wellness-based intervention for people with serious mental illness, and Imani Breakthrough, a faith-based opioid recovery model developed with Black and Latinx churches. Her work emphasizes culturally responsive approaches, participatory design, and the intersection of behavioral health, structural inequity, and recovery. Dr. Bellamy also serves as a Senior Policy Adviser to the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. Drawing from her own lived experience, she brings a unique perspective as a social worker, educator, and national leader advancing peer support, citizenship, and health equity in underrepresented communities.