View the full pre-event program for the 2023 Annual Symposium.
The KDE Hub Annual Symposium is an opportunity to gather, to learn, to share, and work together for mental health promotion in Canada. These gatherings:
 
- Create supportive connections within and between the project communities that the Hub supports and those with shared interests
- Increase knowledge and build skills in selective areas that are relevant and timely for mental health promotion and mental illness prevention
- Inspire a shared vision for how learnings from projects can contribute to mental health promotion in Canada
Annual Symposium 2023
Leveraging Momentum for Mental Health PromotionWe are seeing many shifts in approaches to mental health. From a connotation of illness to one of wellbeing and potential; from colonial systems to perspectives that honour and privilege cultural safety and wisdom; from a downstream fixation on ‘individuals in need’ to a broadened consideration of upstream systems and equity. These shifts align with the principles and goals of mental health promotion, which focus on wellness, influencing determinants of health, centering on strengths, and promoting equity. How can the momentum created by these shifts be leveraged to maximize efforts for positive population mental health? Join us at the KDE Hub’s 2023 Annual Symposium to learn about the windows of opportunity, leveraging change, and advancing mental health promotion in Canada.
The 2023 Annual Symposium will be held virtually. View the pre-event program here.
Gathering for momentum at the KDE Hub 2023 Annual Symposium
The KDE Hub supports federally funded projects across Canada that aspire to mental health promotion that is evidence-informed, sensitive to diverse contexts and cultures, equitable and sustainable. Project teams and those with mental health promotion interests are invited to come together for two days of learning, reflecting and connecting. This event aims to:
- Increase awareness of and the skills to identify windows of opportunity for improving population mental health
- Equip participants to identify potential levers of change for action at local, provincial and national levels
- Create connections within and between those working in various sectors including practice, research and government
Annual Symposium 2022
A Growth Phase for Mental Health Promotion in Canada: Helping it Flourish
Why a growth phase?
The COVID-19 pandemic reinforced and heightened the need for mental health promotion. Mental health is now part of everyday conversations in almost every household. People are hearing, thinking and talking about equity, including ways that identities, cultures, generations and places are systematically excluded, left behind or negatively impacted by our household, neighbourhood, organizational, community and societal norms and practices. Higher needs and greater awareness of them has led to more investment in mental health promotion, especially for those most impacted by the pandemic. Existing investments can also extend their impact, including the Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund (MHP-IF) as it enters a second 4-year phase in 2022.
What does it mean to flourish?
To thrive. To grow and develop successfully. To play to strengths. To connect with like-minded people who have diverse experiences that can nourish your own. To learn with and from each other. To co-design how to spread mental health promotion benefits to all peoples and places in Canada, especially those most in need.
How can we help mental health promotion flourish?
Together – if your work is positioned as mental health promotion or influences determinants of mental health through food systems, community safety, homelessness, education, wellbeing or otherwise. Making the most of a growth phase for mental health promotion in Canada will take expanding awareness of what’s happening in all parts of the country and by whom, strengthening connections between people and resources that can support their work, and sharpening skills for learning as we go to inform ongoing improvements and choices about what to scale, with whom, where and how.
The KDE Hub Annual Symposium 2022 is happening in the early stages of a growth phase for mental health promotion in Canada. The event aims to:
- Grow awareness of mental health promotion innovations across the country. This includes the work of the Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund, and initiatives that address determinants of mental health while leading with other issues.
- Grow connections with resources that can advance mental health promotion efforts. This includes gaining access to people, organizations, knowledge, and practical tools that can support your work.
- Grow skills for learning about promising approaches for advancing mental health promotion. This includes co-designing priorities for what to learn and exploring ways of learning that are suitable for different worldviews, populations, and settings.
Highlights from the 2022 Symposium
Opening Session: #ThisIsMHP
This session extended a warm welcome to all, gave orientation to the symposium, and provided a first opportunity to interact directly with the projects and people of the Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund (MHP-IF). The focus of this session was…
Keynote: Helping Mental Health Promotion flourish in Canada
The focus of the second day of the symposium was on actions for helping mental health promotion flourish. A pre-recorded presentation features two leading keynote speakers – Drs. Carol Hopkins and Kwame McKenzie– who offer perspective, ideas, and inspiration on…
Panel and participant dialogue on helping Mental Health Promotion flourish in Canada
Primed with the pre-recorded presentations and participant questions submitted in advance, this live session was an opportunity for dialogue. Keynote speakers were joined by three additional panelists – all leading thinkers and actors and all with unique vantage points on…
Getting practical: Actions for helping Mental Health Promotion flourish in Canada
This session was about getting practical with actions that are most needed to help mental health promotion flourish in Canada. Actions considered and built on keynote, panel, and participant perspectives. All session participants were invited to share their initial ideas…
Options for helping participants flourish
Actions most needed to help mental health promotion flourish include actions to help ourselves flourish. This session reinforced the importance of self-care and offered self-care options for participants to try, including some that could be brought into participants’ own settings.…
Emerging new knowledge from the Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund (phase 1)
Day 3 of the symposium was focused on knowledge for helping mental health promotion flourish. The first session of the day was a written summary of emerging knowledge from Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund (MHP-IF) projects during Phase 1. The…
Animating emerging findings from the MHP-IF through project stories
This session brought to life findings shared in a written summary of emerging knowledge from Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund (MHP-IF) projects during Phase 1. Two rounds of breakout room discussions led by project team members focused on a selection…
Panel and participant dialogue on making best use of the emerging knowledge and shaping future knowledge development activities
With insights from MHP-IF projects on how they adapted to evolving pandemic conditions and other experiences during Phase 1, this panel extended the knowledge mobilization story. What do we mean by ‘high quality evidence’? How can we approach knowledge mobilization…
Closing celebration: Consolidate the present, reflect on the past, anticipate the future
The closing session reflected on the forces that brought the 2022 symposium community together and provided perspective on the growth of the mental health promotion community and on critical success factors for building influence and impact in this field. Perspectives…