Operation Overcome: Together for Youth Mental Health

A Bold Vision for Youth Mental Health

Youth mental health is at a crisis point in Canada. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young Canadians, with especially urgent impacts in Indigenous communities where the crisis is most acute. And digital pressures, isolation, and a strained health system leave too many children and teens without the support they need.

Operation Overcome has a goal of creating a million moments, connecting directly with young Canadians in the next two years, giving them the chance to experience “breakthrough moments”—powerful sparks of hope when they feel seen, understood, and inspired to seek support. The Fund works in close partnership with Canada’s leading youth mental health organizations to ensure that the national system reaches as many young people as possible.

Operation Overcome is a bold, unified response that uses human connection to prevent youth suicide, strengthen mental health, and build resilient, hopeful communities.

Powered by Charitable Impact, this Cause Fund strengthens a national movement for youth mental health—connecting the dots between schools, families, and community supports to create breakthrough moments of hope and resilience. Operation Overcome is for donors who care about supporting youth mental health, but aren’t sure where to give effectively or where their support will have the greatest impact. With expert leadership and a values-driven strategy, your giving strengthens Canada’s mental health system and gives kids the chance to find that one moment that changes everything.

The Leadership Behind Operation Overcome

Operation Overcome is co-led by Robb Nash, founder of The Robb Nash Project, and Tegan Moss, President of The Kelty Foundation. Together, they bring powerful and complementary voices to a national movement for youth mental health, uniting lived experience, creativity, and community advocacy.

Robb Nash is a musician, storyteller, and nationally recognized mental health advocate based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Through the Robb Nash Project, he has toured schools and communities across Canada, using music and personal storytelling to open dialogue, challenge stigma, and inspire young people to seek help when they need it most. As he explains: 

“There’s something bigger happening in the room than just us… watching that reaction and us telling stories and playing songs, and then partnering together with other organizations to get them the resources that they need. We see massive breakthroughs from some kids.”

Tegan Moss leads the Kelty Foundation, a Vancouver-based organization committed to advancing child and youth mental health by promoting social-emotional learning from an early age, funding evidence-based programs, and supporting initiatives that improve access to care for families. She brings a deep commitment to bridging gaps in Canada’s mental health system and ensuring children, and their parents know where to turn for help. As she reflected on the partnership with Robb:

“I think Robb’s foundation and our foundation have a very similar mindset, which is that we work better together.”

Just as Robb sparks breakthroughs on stage, the Kelty Foundation helps create them in classrooms, communities, and families, through early learning, access to care, and programs that build long-term resilience.

Alongside Robb and Tegan, Operation Overcome is supported by an Advisory Council of youth mental health experts, who help identify where funding can have the greatest impact. The Fund collaborates with charities, businesses, and researchers, nationwide, ensuring that resources are directed where they are most needed and solutions are grounded in both expertise and community. For example, when kids participate in a Robb Nash presentation, they can be connected directly to trusted supports like the Foundry in B.C., Kids Help Phone, or local counsellors and hospitals, ensuring the breakthrough moment is followed by immediate access to care. 

This leadership ensures Operation Overcome is rooted in connection, innovation, and hope, designed to reach children and youth where they are, and remind them that they are never alone.

Why This Cause Fund Exists

Too often, families struggle to navigate a fragmented and confusing care system. Teachers see students in pain but lack the resources to connect them to help. Parents watch their kids wrestle with isolation, shame, or despair without knowing how to intervene.

But many struggles remain invisible, unseen by parents, by teachers, even by kids themselves. That’s why Operation Overcome is committed to reaching a million young people through schools and communities, creating breakthrough moments that can spark awareness. By reaching every child, the Fund ensures those who are hurting most have the chance to speak up and connect with parents, teachers, counsellors, or professionals for support.

At the very moment when early connection could make all the difference, kids are falling through the cracks. This Fund was built to ensure no young person is left without the support they need.

A Strategy Rooted in Connection and Action

Operation Overcome is grounded in a simple, powerful idea: human connection is the most protective force against mental health struggles. To bring this idea to life, the Fund focuses on three pillars:

1. Promoting knowledge and awareness
   Through school-based programs and community events, the Fund helps normalize conversations about mental health, reduce stigma, and connect students and families to local resources. By making mental health visible, relatable, and accessible, Operation Overcome fosters breakthrough moments that can change, and save, lives.
2. Surrounding youth with specialized services
   The Fund expands access to a wide range of youth-focused supports making a difference in communities across the country. From community-based programs to models like Integrated Youth Services (IYS) hubs—“one-stop” centres for mental, physical, housing, and employment support—Operation Overcome highlights and partners with organizations that help youth and families access the care they need without navigating a maze of disconnected programs.
3. Building a powerful community of support
   Operation Overcome brings together schools, families, health professionals, charities, and donors—including those working in Indigenous communities— to create a continuum of care that bridges the gap between hurt and help. As the Fund leaders put it: 

“We will connect the dots between hurt and help; we will ignite more connections and conversations for children and youth who are struggling to cope with the pains of life.”

This community-driven model is also fueled by grassroots donors. When the Lapu Lapu tragedy devastated communities in Vancouver, a Giving Group was created under Operation Overcome to provide specialized support to the families of victims while linking to the Fund’s broader mission. This approach shows how local generosity and tailored solutions can connect to a national movement, building resilience not just for one community, but for youth across Canada.

A Trusted Model, Powered by Charitable Impact

Operation Overcome is built on Charitable Impact’s Cause Fund model—a giving approach designed to make charitable donations easier, more strategic, and more impactful.

Like a river fed by many streams, a Cause Fund combines donations into a powerful current for change. Your gift to Operation Overcome is pooled with others and its Cause Leaders direct it toward Canadian registered charities delivering youth mental health support in schools and communities.

What sets this model apart is that Cause Leaders, supported by an Advisor Council, actively shape the Fund’s direction and make strategic funding decisions, so you don’t have to navigate that complexity alone.

For donors, this model blends heart and strategy. You bring your values, generosity, and desire to help. The Cause Leaders bring deep, on-the-ground insight to ensure your giving creates meaningful, lasting impact. Together, donors and leaders collaborate, through funding, networks, or expertise, to amplify impact and co-create solutions.

What Success Looks Like

Operation Overcome’s long-term vision is bold but achievable.

• Short-term: Expand live event programming to more schools across Canada, sparking immediate breakthrough moments and connecting students to supports.
• Medium-term: Strengthen access to coordinated, community-based youth supports—whether through models like Integrated Youth Services hubs or other effective approaches—so that more young people can find the help they need in one accessible place.
• Long-term: Create a cultural shift where youth mental health is normalized, stigma is reduced, and suicide prevention is embedded in schools and communities nationwide.

These moments of breakthrough are the building blocks of long-term change.

How You Can Help

This is a national movement for youth mental health, and your generosity fuels it.

By giving to Operation Overcome, you help:

• Deliver programs directly into schools.
• Equip kids and families with the tools to recognize and respond to mental health struggles.
• Expand access to community-based services across Canada.
• Create breakthrough moments that remind young people: You matter. You belong. You’re not alone.

Donate today, or help spread the word. Whether you give, share, or invite others in, your support builds a future where every young person knows they are seen, supported, and valued.

Learn more at operationovercome.com