Catch up on #LE26

Building on the 2024 Match in the Netherlands, this session will showcase how municipal accessibility committees have collaborated to remove barriers and promote inclusion for people with physical disabilities, sensory impairments, neurodivergence, and lived‑experience leaders. 

Focusing on city‑level implementation, participants will examine practical successes, persistent challenges, and the organizational changes needed to mainstream accessibility across services, infrastructure, procurement, and communications. 

The Match will use international comparative learning to surface scalable solutions and concrete steps that local governments can adopt.

By way of follow up, a joint forum at GLE’s Leadership Exchange Network Meeting will be held with the “Moving from Intent to Action: Achieving Barrier‑free Societies” Match to connect municipal practice with federal policy. The aim of this is to enable cross‑level dialogue on how national frameworks can support city‑level delivery and how local innovation can inform policy reform.

Inclusion Canada and Community Living Ontario will speak to their decades of work bringing families together to examine themes of values, vision, and action. Durham Association for Family Resources and Support will speak to their experiences in partnering with families to imagine, plan, and implement good lives in local community, one person at a time, with families in the lead, with an approach that offers a range of supports and resources in ways requested and desired by families. At all three levels, “family” is defined as a person (with a disability) in the context of their chosen family, where the strength of unpaid relationships has the best chance of hearing, nurturing, and augmenting, where necessary, the voice of the person.

For one of the match days, the group will travel together to Durham Region to meet with the families and the team at Durham Family Resources in a rich, dynamic, and interactive event to see, meet, and hear about the range of supports and resources provided for and with families through this family-led organization. This hands-on, vibrant event will also provide immediate opportunities for those from away to contribute by sharing their ideas and experiences as they overlap and intersect with what they are seeing. The commonalities with Inclusion Canada and CLO will also be visible.

Local families and participants will gather for a midday meal, and together we will build on the themes that emerge, preparing for a deeper Day 2 conversation back in Toronto. These themes may include:

We will seek to build on the family leadership Match in Ireland in 2022, and family leaders attending from all countries will be encouraged to share their experiences.

This Match, hosted by hosted by UNITI, will highlight the vital roles that individuals with developmental disabilities play in driving change within their communities. By collaborating with local governments, participating in leadership training at universities, and engaging in election events, these leaders contribute significantly to conversations surrounding accessibility, housing, and inclusion.

Many participants have established strong relationships with local officials, including mayors and even provincial leadership. This Match, led by these advocates, will demonstrate how effective leadership emerges through dedication, relationship-building, and active participation. Attendees will engage in morning learning sessions, meet elected officials, and visit sites that showcase successful inclusivity initiatives, such as Crescent Beach, where a beach wheelchair was donated, and White Rock Pier, where fundraising efforts supported access improvements. Participants will also tour inclusive apartment homes that exemplify community living.

Expected outcomes include actionable ideas for fostering leadership and community development, firsthand experiences of inclusive projects, and discussions with civic leaders who champion the rights of those with lived experience.

We are pleased to share that Stephanie Cadieux, Chief Accessible Officer of Canada, Sheila Malcomson, Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction for British Columbia, and Trevor Halford, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, and Brenda Locke, Mayor of the City of Surrey, will join the Community Panel as featured panelists. Megan Knight, Mayor of White Rock, will deliver welcoming remarks at the landmark White Rock Pier ahead of delegates walking the pier and visiting the accessibility mat.

Working in collaboration, seven Toronto-based co-hosts will design an engaging knowledge exchange session focused on the leadership of longstanding community-based organizations for people with psychosocial disabilities. 

Often sidelined as ‘alternatives’, this Match centers community-based models known to be leaders in best practices, with the intention of creating lasting system change with long-term sustainability through partnership. 

Participants can expect: two site visits in Toronto, knowledge sharing of best practices grounded in local contexts, communities and histories, and deliberative dialogues, to engage in collective problem solving around shared issues. Outcomes will include: network building, meaningful knowledge exchange, identifying shared goals and objectives for future exchanges, and developing collective strategizing.

This Match builds on the successful 2SLGBTQIA+ Leadership Collaborative gatherings, creating space for dialogue with community leaders at all organizational levels, from front-line leaders to executives, who are committed to collective action. Through facilitated knowledge exchange and intergenerational learning, we’ll amplify the voices of those most marginalized within our community (including trans, Two-Spirit, and intersex individuals) while examining how mental health and disability intersect with 2SLGBTQIA+ identities.

Participants will engage in honest conversation about current challenges to safety and equity, explore our community’s history of resilience, and move from allyship to accomplice action. We’ll develop tangible outcomes that continue beyond the Match. This isn’t just networking; it’s mobilizing collective action grounded in the principle that if any part of our community lacks equality, none of us are truly equal. As relatively established leaders within equity-denied communities, we have a responsibility to amplify and support other marginalized voices, recognizing that our liberation is inextricably linked to that of all marginalized groups.

This Match will explore how a strong partnership between Ontario’s developmental services sector and government is advancing a skilled, inclusive, and responsive workforce that supports people with developmental disabilities to live full lives.

Co-hosted by sector and government leaders, the Match will feature presentations focused on recruitment and retention, core competencies, leadership development, and supporting workforce mental health and wellness. Together, we’ll examine how collaborative leadership strengthens equity, drives workforce innovation, and creates sustainable, inclusive career pathways.

Agenda highlights include a presentation from Queen’s University on DS workforce research (historical to present) and sessions on how families and people with lived experience are shaping our future workforce. This Match presents a unique opportunity to share our workforce initiative, the data-driven research behind it, and how we co-created practical solutions together—turning ideas into action, grounded in inclusion, belonging, and collaboration.

This Match will highlight Indigenous leadership in transforming systems of disability and mental wellness through culture, land-based healing, and community-driven approaches. Participants will explore how Indigenous Nations in British Colombia (BC) and beyond are reclaiming space in human services by centering cultural knowledge, ceremony, and relational practices.

Participants will offer insights into how wellness is understood not just as individual health, but as collective balance between people, land, and spirit. Visitors will learn from examples where Indigenous governance and service design are rooted in ancestral law, community inclusion, and intergenerational healing.

The Match will include opportunities to engage in talking circles, site visits, and reciprocal knowledge sharing with Elders, people with lived experience, and emerging leaders.

This Match will focus on Local Area Coordination (LAC), a robust evidence-based approach designed to provide personalized support for individuals with disabilities, mental health challenges, older adults, and their families within local communities. As a critical component of service system reform globally, LAC has been implemented in various countries since 1988, promoting improved outcomes for diverse populations.

This session will build on the GLE Match in Surrey, England (2024), and previous international collaborations, highlighting the first Canadian implementation of LAC in Nova Scotia.

Participants will engage with the LAC practice framework, explore key design and implementation elements, and discuss reform connections as well as insights from the broader LAC ecosystem, including networks from England and Wales. This Match will serve as a platform for sharing knowledge and best practices while fostering collaboration to enhance community-based supports for those in need.

Self-direction is a way of financing support so that people purchase goods and services to meet their unique needs and preferences.  

The Self-Directed Support Network is a collaborative of researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and advocates with professional and lived experience who collaborate to improve and expand self-direction.  

In this two-day, hands-on knowledge exchange, participants will share current projects, map what works across countries, and identify priority research questions.

Activities include short presentations, cross-country learning sessions, collaborative mapping of best practice, and co-design workshops that give equal weight to academic knowledge and lived experience.  

The event aims to strengthen international connections, spark new collaborations, and produce clear, practical research priorities that can guide policy and practice improvements in self-directed support. 

Anti-Indigenous racism in health care is both a symptom and a tool of colonial violence that continues to harm Indigenous peoples. The tragic deaths of two First Nations people, Brian Sinclair and Joyce Echaquan, have brought this systemic issue into sharp focus within Canada, demanding urgent and sustained action.

This Match invites participants to explore and reflect on anti-Indigenous racism through examination of various resources such as the recent national conversation in Canada. The goal will be to share challenges to, and solutions for, leadership to eliminate anti-Indigenous racism in health care around the world.

During the session, we will examine the roots and impacts of anti-Indigenous racism in health care systems and explore key recommendations from various resources. We will discuss strategies, policy, and programs for creating culturally safe, inclusive, and responsive care environments. We will also reflect on wise practices for uplifting distinct Indigenous voices, values, and ways of being in mental wellness work.

The objective of this Match will be to hear from participants about how their organization is measuring value and impact. We will discuss how to compile the various approaches and instruments into a toolbox for sharing amongst the participants and to the wider GLE membership.

This Match will be a continuation of the conversations and work completed during and after the 2022 and 2024 Matches about impact measurement in intermediary organizations. An impact scorecard, with a collective impact lens, was developed by participants of the 2022 match. Its potential implementation was discussed at the 2024 match with the understanding that its uptake would vary as each intermediary organization has a unique structure and mandate. Such variation requires that each intermediary organization consider its own organizational, health system and political contexts when deciding how to measure its value and impact.

Building on the first Ecosystems approach to mental health Match in 2024, this Match will further explore how mental health and substance use health systems cannot be developed nor operate in silos – a change in one aspect of the system ripples through the entire ecosystem. The orchestration of the parts of the ecosystem is what enables a community to thrive and support individuals who are seeking or in need of help.

In addition to formal services offered by local governments and service provider organizations, an ecosystem consists of informal supports found in neighbourhoods, groups, associations, networks, families, and wider supports that exist within one’s community. It is the sum of these parts working together that creates a sustainable and responsive mental health and substance use health system.

Participants will help to co-design an agenda for this Match which will provide the opportunity to share ideas as well as visit local examples of an ecosystem in action.

This Match will build on the momentum of the 2022 and 2024 Equally well Matches and the extensive policy and advocacy advances since that time. The focus will be on mobilizing evidence to inform collective solutions that can transform care models and advance equity.

National and international leaders will be brought together to share progress, ideas and challenges, inspired by successful efforts in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and other countries to address physical health inequities among people with mental health needs.

Participants will also have the opportunity to co-develop a “Made in Canada equally well consensus statement.” The central aim of the Match will be to advance an international statement outlining the next steps for coordinated advocacy, policy leadership, research and system change. Participants will hear presentations and have discussions about innovations such as reverse integration models, enhanced digital tools, improved care continuity, and redesigned referral pathways.

Recent efforts to address rural well-being have highlighted the powerful role that community development and empowerment play in promoting health, preventing illness and supporting recovery for individuals faced with mental health and substance use challenges. This Match will explore strategies, models, approaches, and case examples to identify commonalities that can be translated into other rural communities and populations to improve access and support, and promote health and well-being.

Participants will also explore the strengths and assets within rural and remote communities including community cohesion, resilience, informal service availability and interpersonal support. Our aim is to advance best practices with the intention of influencing research, policy, and potential advocacy efforts.

Join this two day Match, hosted by the Wellesley Institute and Thrive Toronto for the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) where there will be a focus on innovations and challenges in mental health in cities worldwide. Members of GLE’s iCircle Collaborative will share information and updates about their Thriving mental-health-focused initiatives from around the world, including Amsterdam, Dublin, London and more. The aim will be to identify, discuss and document common lessons which will promote and support mental health in cities. During Day 2 of this Match, we will hear more on the work of Thrive Toronto and partners to improve wellness in a large multi-cultural city. 

This Match aims to foster international collaboration by promoting the exchange of information and expertise on military, veteran, and family mental health across a global network. We will build on the momentum of our 2024 gathering in the Netherlands, and reflect on lived experience engagement within the context of military, veteran and family mental health. Together we will learn from members with lived and living experience in these areas, and explore collaborative research and learning related to the military including civilian transition, women in the military, the impacts of military service on families. We will also have the opportunity to explore new topic areas and agree and advance our shared goals through coordinated international efforts.

Population mental health focuses on the mental health of whole populations, addressing disparities between groups, acting on the determinants that impact our wellbeing and working across sectors to create the conditions that support our mental health. This Match will explore the role of frameworks and strategies and identify a set of key enablers and implementation tools to mobilize, sustain and scale effective population mental health approaches in our communities.  

The Match will include a mix of site visits to learn from the experience of grassroots community leaders and discussions with thought leaders about effective tools and strategies to support this work. The objective is to build a common understanding of upstream mental health promotion and prevention that will contribute to the case for investment and sustained action to integrate population mental health approaches into our systems. 

Participants will share their experience and expertise about what works and why in delivering and sustaining population mental health actions, we will learn from grassroots leaders, academics, NGO and governments about how to mobilize concrete solutions to overcome barriers for lasting system change. 

This Match will focus on population and community-level mental health challenges and effective responses to mitigate the negative mental health and psychosocial consequences of large-scale, natural and human-made disasters, using large-scale climate events such as wildfires, as one example.

The aim of this Match is to share learning and exchange knowledge about a range of related topics such as: The four phases of disaster; common mental health effects of disaster; the role of leadership in effective disaster response; the 10 priority actions for successful mitigation of large-scale disaster events; The importance of collective community support and effectiveness, and how to encourage healthy, prosocial recovery in a community. The Match will begin with a half-day table top exercise simulating a large-scale community disaster with effective psychosocial response measures.

The Match will convene at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Canada’s leading academic mental health sciences centre. During the Match, we will discuss current opportunities in practice, research and policy to put data into action for the benefit of young people experiencing mental health and/or substance use health concerns. The format will include presentations, small group discussions, and individual reflection and planning.

Our aim is to cover topics such as equity and youth-cantered measurement approaches, measurement-based care in community settings, using implementation science to build measurement and data capacity, engagement and equity-focused data governance approaches, and building a federated data platform across health jurisdictions to empower and impact practitioners, young people, researchers, administrators, and policy-makers. The importance of equity considerations, co-creation, supportive structures, and well-articulated processes will be discussed. Practical real-world examples will be used to facilitate discussions.

Addiction and harmful behaviors no longer fit into traditional silos. Whether it’s substance use, gambling, technology use, gaming, social media, shopping, pornography, or sex, the lines are blurring.

We’re bringing global leaders together to share and learn about the impacts. Join us for two days where substance use and addiction, mental health, and disability leaders tackle and discuss a range of behaviors. Our aim is to create a dynamic space where global expertise collides, barriers break down, intersectionality is unpacked, and real solutions and actions emerge.

This Match is an opportunity to connect with leaders already seeing these trends across all three sectors. You’ll gain fresh and innovative cross-sector perspectives, practical strategies for immediate implementation, a powerful network of change-makers, and evidence-based approaches to emerging addictions.

Collaboration is key to overcoming challenges and leveraging opportunities. This Match will bring together leaders from around the world in e-mental health (online mental health) to learn about what is working well in this sphere, what can be improved, and how leaders can support each other to increase access to quality e-mental health resources while creating efficiencies in the system.

Participants will develop a shared understanding of the international e-mental health landscape before exploring individual journeys from concept to action. Challenges will be solved together in a cooperative way. The Mental Health Commission of Canada will mobilize participant experiences, key Canadian successes, and inspiring local organizations and groups that will collaborate and share innovations and learning in e-mental health. Expertise from both professionals and people with lived experience will be a cornerstone in developing collective, high-quality solutions that are safe, effective and equitable for all communities.

This Match will explore the principle of Substance Use Health, a concept established by CAPSA in 2020, to transition from illness-based models of substance use to a spectrum-based understanding that includes all levels of use, including abstinence. Unlike the focus of mental health and physical health, most practices, policies, and research related to substance use have concentrated on illness, specifically addiction, thereby limiting public awareness of its health effects. The Substance Use Health Spectrum outlines five core principles: the inherent place of every individual on the spectrum, the benefits that substances can provide, the associated risks that necessitate informed decision-making, the opportunities for health promotion, and the stigma faced by individuals across the spectrum.

This Match will serve as a platform to discuss these principles in global contexts and facilitate the development of strategies to incorporate this framework into local and international practices, ultimately promoting a more inclusive understanding of substance use health.

The Match will convene at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Canada’s largest mental health hospital and research centre. Our time together will be split between presentations about current research and public health approaches, hearing about community-based experience, and there will be opportunities for participants to share their knowledge and ask questions.

Topics will include dimensions of public health and community-based approaches to suicide prevention, including surveillance, epidemiology, health policy, health promotion, and community engagement. Based on local expertise, we will also include current work on standards, education and training related to suicide prevention, including hands-on experience in our mental health simulation centre. Throughout, we will incorporate equity-focused approaches to suicide prevention and involve members of GLE’s Lived Experience Council in planning and delivering the session. Additional activities will include the opportunity to meet with colleagues from Shkaabe Makwa (the first Indigenous-led hospital-based Centre in Canada established to improve the health and wellbeing of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis across Ontario) and learn about their work in suicide prevention and life promotion with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities.

This Match will convene global leaders to explore how community-led crisis response models can fundamentally transform mental health systems. Anchored by British Colombia’s Crisis Response, Community Led (CRCL) as a living case study, participants will investigate the role of co-leadership between individuals with lived experience and clinical experts in driving sustainable system change.

This gathering will unite individuals with lived experience, policymakers, system leaders, and decision-makers to collaboratively create strategies for scaling and sustaining community-based alternatives to traditional crisis response models. Attendees will examine innovative financing models, policy frameworks, workforce development initiatives, and governance structures that promote equitable power-sharing between clinical and peer expertise.

Through interactive workshops, site visits, and strategic planning sessions, participants will develop action plans for enhancing crisis care within their own jurisdictions while simultaneously cultivating a global network dedicated to advancing community-led solutions in mental health.

This Match will explore solutions in youth mental health and substance use, highlighting current strengths and limitations, and opportunities to build more inclusive approaches. We will begin with a roundtable discussion that brings together a diverse group of experts, spanning different age groups, industries, and areas of expertise. This opening session will encourage the exchange of knowledge, experiences, and perspectives, providing a foundation for innovative thinking.

Following the roundtable, participants will engage in an interactive workshop designed to involve everyone in hands-on problem-solving. This collaborative approach will ensure solutions are not only discussed but shaped collectively. On the second day, we will take our discussions to the field with visits to local institutions leading frontline work. Here, we will present our findings from day one, gather direct feedback from practitioners, and ensure our final recommendations are informed by real-world insights.