Year: Ongoing 

Children’s Mental Health Week aims to build awareness of child and youth mental health concerns and decrease stigma, as well as remind us that there is help and hope available. 

(View art for #500kSTRONG) (Download Art .zip)

VOCPRI and the Child and Parent Resource Institute (CPRI) are planning a social media and video campaign called #500kSTRONG to celebrate the strengths of young people who live with mental health challenges.

Youth partners from all five Ontario regions have been invited to record a video to Buffy Sainte Marie’s song “We Are Circling.” A compilation video will be released on May 2, 2017 at 6:00 PM on childrensmentalhealthweek.ca.

Why “500k”? It is often cited that “1 in 5 children and youth have a mental health challenge.” This means that approximately 500,000 children and youth in Ontario live with these challenges every day. Children’s Mental Health Week (May 1 – 7, 2017) is about breaking down stigma and celebrating the strength and resilience of these young Ontarians.

The goal for this campaign is to come together to generate excitement and start the social media push to get 500,000 views of the video over the next year (one view to represent every child and youth in Ontario who experiences a mental health challenge).

Thank you to our partners for sharing your strengths with Ontario:

• Antler River Public School (West)
• Getting Possibilities Started, G.P.S. (West)
• Ignite (Central)
• Kingston New Mentality Group (East)
• Libby’s Place (Toronto Region)
• SNAP (Toronto)
• YOUNION (North)
• Youth Empowerment Team, Y.E.T. (West)
• Youth Engagement, Y.E. (West)