Hello to our incredible network! 

I hope everyone had a great summer and is settling back into old routines and new routines for some of our youth as you enter high school, post-secondary, and new jobs! 

The New Mentality is growing at a rapid pace. Since 2007, we have done amazing work through our incredible network and staff leadership from Cath Dyer, Caralyn Quan, many others, and our current staff Fizza.  As a result, we have grown our small pilot project to a robust community of youth and adult allies, creating real change in the mental health system. 

I am so proud of all the work that has been accomplished in this beautiful and inspiring community of youth mental health advocates and adult allies! 

It is now time to focus on growing and finding opportunities to provide more substantial support to our network to deepen our impact and expand our reach. 

Beginning immediately, I will move into a new role at Children’s Mental Health Ontario (CMHO) as a Senior Program Manager, and we will be posting for the Program Manager position. This is a new role for me within CMHO. My new role at TNM will focus entirely on developing a sustainability model to deepen our impact, expand our reach, and provide growth opportunities in the network. The goal here is to expand our TNM staff team enough that we can maintain our day-to-day activities while focusing on building a sustainability model for the network. We want to see more support for our TNM Groups, and we are so excited for what that will look like and all the incredible opportunities that will bring to network members. My role will focus on supporting the success of the new Program Manager, and I will no longer be a part of the day-to-day activities of TNM. As part of my new role, in addition to providing leadership with TNM, I will be leading a new program of CMHO focusing on developing a provincial autism training program and will also provide support to the Family Partnership program. 

This news is bittersweet for me! I love our network; being on the youth action committee as a 19-year-old changed my life. I have felt the impact of my adult ally really believing in me and giving me opportunities to grow and learn and stretch and really see what I’m capable of. As a youth in the network, TNM gave me so much confidence and this amazing community to be a part of. And then, I became a staff member in 2014. I was fresh out of university and looking for something that I was passionate about. I couldn’t have dreamed of the experiences that I’ve had as a staff member. I’ve absolutely loved being an adult ally in the network. It has brought so much fulfillment, and I’ve seen so many youth do such incredible and amazing things. I am so grateful for this network. And I look forward to my new role to provide a strong foundation as the network continues to evolve and do incredible work.  

I’d love to hear from you all, so if you have any questions, please feel free to call or email me! You can reach me at mary-anne@thenewmentality.ca or 416-921-2109 ext 133, I’m happy to set up a time to chat. I know change can be hard, but I really believe this change will help The New Mentality grow. Remember I’m not leaving, I’ll just be a little bit more behind the curtain 🙂 

Much love,
Mary-Anne