Youth Mental Health Fund: Call for proposals 2024

On this page

• About the fund
• Call for proposals
• Who can apply

About the fund

The Youth Mental Health Fund (YMHF), announced by the federal government in Budget 2024, aims to improve the mental health of youth and their families, and to enhance access to, and navigation of, mental health services with a particular focus on equity-deserving groups.

The fund would contribute to long-term improvements in mental health outcomes for youth and to advance the creation of a strengthened, integrated and accessible youth mental health system that addresses the needs of equity-deserving and underserved youth populations.

Specifically, the fund seeks to improve the availability, accessibility and quality of mental health supports and services for youth by:

• Priority 1: Building capacity, or supporting the expansion of Integrated Youth Services (IYS)^{Footnote 1} networks and hubs
• Priority 2: Building capacity in community organizations providing mental health services and supports to diverse youth populations
• Priority 3: Building capacity of mental wellness supports in Indigenous communities or in organizations that support First Nations youth on-reserve, Inuit youth in Inuit Nunangat and Métis youth

Call for proposals

For this funding opportunity, Health Canada is seeking proposals for projects under the following Youth Mental Health Fund priority:

• Priority 2: Building capacity in and supporting community-based organizations that provide mental health services to youth with the goal of facilitating and strengthening linkages to the broader mental health care system, such as IYS networks to expand their reach and serve more youth. This includes proposals primarily supporting Indigenous youth living in urban and rural areas, specifically First Nations youth who do not live on-reserve and Inuit youth who do not live in Inuit Nunangat.

Other priority streams of the YMHF will be funded through complementary mechanisms, rather than this open call for proposals. These include:

• Priority 1: Strengthening and expanding Integrated Youth Services (IYS). Strengthening and expanding existing IYS sites to increase their capacity and reach more youth, especially marginalized youth, to foster a nationwide collaborative network across the country, linked to provincial and territorial health systems. This funding priority will be administered separately by Health Canada.
• Priority 3: Building capacity of mental wellness supports in Indigenous communities or in organizations that primarily support First Nations youth on-reserve, Inuit youth in Inuit Nunangat and Métis youth. This will be administered by Indigenous Services Canada and guided by Indigenous partners and communities.

All proposals should demonstrate how the project will:

• improve youth mental health
• improve access to care in community settings
• prioritize highest unmet needs
• include evaluation and measurement

Additionally, Health Canada will further prioritize projects for funding based on urgency, geographical representation, readiness for implementation, complementarity with existing initiatives, and system integration.

Who can apply

The following types of Canadian applicants are eligible for funding for this opportunity:

• Not-for-profit organizations
• Public post-secondary education institutions

Note that applicants from Quebec are not eligible, as the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux is managing funds for Quebec.