TMU receives Bell Let’s Talk Fund grant for $100,000
The TMU team accepts a cheque from Bell Lets Talk chair, Mary Deacon. From left to right: Clara Tam, director Student Integrated Health and Wellbeing; Patrizia Albanese, interim vice-provost Faculty Affairs, Jen McMillen, vice-provost Students; Mary Deacon, chair Bell Lets Talk; Lee Hodge, director Community Wellbeing; Jay Baker, Campus Wellbeing strategist; Jennifer Alefounder, director Workplace Wellbeing Services; Colleen Rodriguez, administrative coordinator Community and Student Wellbeing.
On Bell Let’s Talk Day, Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) received $100,000 from Bell to support mental health initiatives for students. TMU will use the funds to develop a One Stop Shop of resources available to the entire TMU community to support their mental health and well-being.
One Stop Shop for well-being
The aim of the One Stop Shop is to provide a centralized resource for all members of the TMU community to access accurate, up-to-date information on holistic well-being resources available to them both at TMU, and in the wider community. Community Wellbeing learned from surveys, engagement sessions and student, staff and faculty leaders that there are challenges to learning about resources and how to access them. Through this two-year grant, a centralized website will be developed to allow anyone within TMU to search for the resources they need to help support mental health and holistic well-being.
Community members will be able to search for complementary services and initiatives to strengthen the capacity and learn how they might navigate services on campus.
“We’ve heard across TMU that community members lack awareness of well-being services available to them, and how to access and navigate them,” says Lee Hodge, director of Community Wellbeing on campus. “The One Stop Shop will respond to that need by offering a centralized 24/7 resource with up-to-date and accurate information for all community members. People may be looking for information to help their own mental health and well-being, or to support their students, colleagues or friends. The One Stop Shop should make this easier. We're so excited to use this grant to simplify access to well-being services for everyone at TMU.”
About the Bell Let’s Talk Post-Secondary Fund
Bell is providing $1 million in funding to 11 universities, colleges and CEGEPS through its Post-Secondary Fund. “Post-secondary institutions are committed to supporting the mental health and well-being of their students to achieve student success. Bell Let’s Talk has been proud to support these institutions in their efforts,” says Mary Deacon, chair of Bell Let’s Talk. “Not only do these programs improve access to mental health support, they foster an inclusive on-campus culture making it easier for students to get the help they need during their post-secondary education.”
The Bell Let’s Talk Post-Secondary Fund was launched in 2021 to support Canadian colleges
and universities in implementing the Standard (external link) (a set of flexible guidelines to promote mental health and well-being), the creation of which Bell, The Rossy Family Foundation and RBC had enabled with a joint $1 million donation in 2018, working in partnership with the Canadian Standards Association. Since then, the fund has awarded over $6 million in grants to Canadian post-secondary institutions, starting with more than $3 million in initial grants to over 125 schools in early 2021.
For more information, visit the Community Wellbeing website.