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About CMHE

We help you connect with your community, build relationships,
and support your mental health and well-being.

Founder​‍​‌‍​‍‌ Story

The idea of CMHE emerged from reflections on gaps in access to mental health care that truly reflect the culture and lived experiences of ethnocultural communities. Guided by a shared commitment to diversity, inclusion, and justice in mental health, Asra, Mina, and Shiva came together, bringing both professional expertise and lived experience, to put these values into practice.

 

Through deep engagement with their community and reflective practice, they further recognized the importance of co-creating programs with communities and ensuring that communities play a central role in designing programs intended to serve them. This experience shaped a core belief that continues to guide CMHE’s work today: meaningful and lasting change must come from within communities themselves. CMHE was founded to develop innovative programs that integrate culture, language, and lived experience to support collective well-being.

What is
Mental Health Equity?

Mental health equity means ensuring every community receives support that truly fits their needs, is created with their input, and is grounded in their culture and the languages they speak. It’s about meeting everyone where they are and providing the care that makes sense for them.

Our Mission

Our mission is to advance mental health equity by offering programs that fit your language and culture. Through deep engagement with communities, we identify needs and aim to offer the right help at the right time. We also serve as a bridge between you and other formal services, improving access to community resources. So far, we have engaged with Iranians, Afghans, and Tajiks in Alberta including Calgary and Edmonton, helping each member to find the support they need and build relationships within the Farsi-speaking communities.

 

We emphasize education, awareness, and peer connection as foundational steps in the healing process. We create healing spaces for communities to reconnect with themselves, their roots, and their cultural heritage. Join us if you are a member of these communities and would like to attend psychological programs in your language and culture.

Core Values

Teamwork We value collective wisdom and co-create innovative solutions to communities’ mental health challenges. Community members are encouraged to share their stories of resilience and survival without fear of judgment.

Community Engagement

We empower individuals to become helpers in their own communities. Community members are key players in designing, delivering, and improving CMHE services.

Strength-based Approach
Individuals, families, and communities have unique strengths that support their well-being. Our role is to leverage existing community resources while building on community members’ internal resilience and skills.

Equity and Social Inclusion

We support personal growth and mental resilience by creating inclusive and welcoming spaces and facilitating access to other resources and services.

 

A Safe Place to Be Seen and Heard We recognize that healing begins with a sense of belonging. Every voice is valued, and each story is treated with care and respect. Our programs are structured to reduce isolation, acknowledge shared challenges, and assure participants that they are not alone.  

How The Centre for Mental Health Equity Breaks Down Barriers

The Centre for Mental Health Equity CMHE is community-centric, focusing on empowering participants, breaking stigma, and providing culturally attuned care. No other organization offers services that are designed and facilitated by community members. Here are some of the ways we break down barriers in the community:

Culturally Informed Programming

CMHE works to co-develop informative programming that meets the cultural and linguistic needs of community members. Creating space for people to feel understood and valued enhances engagement and builds trust, allowing community members to access spaces they may have struggled to enter.

Outreach



CMHE engages with equity-deserving and ethnocultural communities through a dedicated outreach team that works directly with community members to start conversations, raise awareness, encourage participation in programs, and address barriers such as fear and shame about seeking help and social isolation.

Holistic Support Networks

Sometimes language and cultural barriers make it difficult to ask for support. We connect you to resources in your language, helping you feel understood, supported, and part of a community that cares. Through these initiatives, CMHE strives to create equitable spaces where all people can flourish and access the mental health support they deserve.

Our Impact

  • Serve approximately 300 community members each year.
  • Initiated the first community-based mental health programs within Farsi-speaking communities.
  • Since 2022, developed and delivered 12 culturally grounded programs for adults and youth in areas such as mental health literacy, community helper, family violence, trauma and resilience, and interpersonal relationships.
  • Expanded access to mental health support in community languages
  • Sustained programming through ongoing funding and sound governance