Stories

Each and every year, we’ve been lucky enough to report on the significant expansion of Jack.org’s programs across Canada, and this year is no exception. Each of our programs grew by more than 30%, and we launched our most ambitious project yet—Be There—which has already seen over 100,000 unique visitors and stands alone as the most comprehensive and engaging resource to learn how to support anyone in your life who is struggling with their mental health. This year, our programs reached over 170,000 young people on the ground, and our message reached over 30 million people online and in the media.

But at Jack.org, growth means more than just increasing numbers. It means making an important impact. It means educating a generation, and changing knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours. It also means always searching for ways to innovate and hold ourselves accountable to rigorous standards in order to create unprecedented change.

Over the past twelve months, we’ve taken huge leaps forward. We’ve increased help-seeking in communities across Canada, provided young people and their peers with effective resources, and increased the capacity for youth leadership in every province and territory. Through Be There, we kept our promise to provide an innovative solution to a complex problem. Thanks to the support of our community, people have engaged with Be There’s educational messages over half a million times, helping build a country where we can all better support one another. This past year, we held our first ever Northern Jack Summit in Yellowknife—the largest youth-led gathering on mental health to ever hit the territories. We are operating now in French and English, and we hosted our first fully francophone Jack Summit in Montreal. We delivered 446 Jack Talks and tailored the content for audiences with special needs. And we piloted the Campus Assessment Tool with ten campuses and over 900 students across the country. This next-level framework, co-created with youth, allows students and administrators to work together to improve mental health services at post-secondary institutions.

This coming year, we’ll be developing our next five year plan—something that we’re only able to do because we hit our last strategic plan metrics a year early! We've published our Youth Voice Report, containing qualitative and quantitative insights on mental health from young people across Canada. We’ll be testing Be There to determine when and where people are most likely to use it. We’ll shift our programs model to a regional approach, allowing us to nurture deeper relationships in those areas. We’ll be using sophisticated digital data to identify higher-need regions of Canada, tailoring content and programming that works for them—all while certifying 160 Talks speakers to give 550 Jack Talks, coaching and guiding 285 Jack Chapters, planning and hosting our National Jack Summit, five Regional Jack Summits, and supporting 33 Local Jack Summits.

This will take growth of the staff team and our network of young leaders. It will take bold choices, great governance, effective strategy, excellent execution, and a lot of hard work. With your support we're ready for it. Our 2,800 brilliant and passionate young leaders are backed by 12,000 individual donors, hundreds of volunteers and allies, plus dozens of foundation and corporate supporters. We’re makers and builders and doers.

Jack.org is not your average charity. And we're proud of it.

With all my love,

Eric Windeler
Founder & Executive Director
Jack.org