Kickstand’s integrated mental health and social services centers meet youths where they’re at, on their own schedule
The young man visited the center at the same time every week. He settled into a comfortable seat, played video games, made small talk, and left. The staff noted his presence, and were warm and welcoming, but gave him space.
Not everyone who walks into a Kickstand Integrated Services location is ready to ask for help from the youth mental health providers.
But in the interim, the magic happened. Weeks later, the youth approached a staff member, feeling like Kickstand was a safe space for him to talk about what was going on in his life.
“He said, ‘Hey, can I talk to someone?’ ” recalls Geoff Knechtel, the senior director of corporate and community relations at the Mental Health Foundation (MHF), based in the city of Edmonton, Alberta’s capital city. MHF is the philanthropic funding organization behind Kickstand youth mental health centers across the province.
“You can walk into a center in a bad state and talk to somebody right away, or you can connect with a friend or play video games until you’re ready,” he explains. “It’s a model that works because youth feel they belong. We meet them where they’re at, build that safe space, and then the healing can happen.”
Every Kickstand center—there are seven across Alberta—is open to youth ages 11 to 25 to drop in and get rapid, free care for mental health, substance use, physical health, social services, peer-to-peer support, and healing for Indigenous and marginalized groups. The one-stop shop is a model of integrated youth services that has been popping up across Canada, each uniquely operating within a provincial network under a different name.
Six of Alberta’s Kickstand locations are in small cities; the first urban center opened in Edmonton in 2025. Given the demand and success of the first seven locations, 10 more are at various stages of development, including three in partnership with Indigenous communities. The aim is to eventually open 50 hubs across the province.
“The demand in that (youth) age group rises because that’s when mental health, substance use and other issues start to appear. They have the most need and are underserved or often disjointed, creating broken pathways to care and a multitude of barriers to care,” Knechtel explains.
But early intervention at Kickstand can make a world of difference, he continues. “We’re truly addressing a gap in our system. We can proudly say it’s getting better with Kickstand, but there is more need, hence, we need to open more centers.”
Expansion is dependent on funding. The Alberta government has committed funds for hubs in rural areas, but not urban locations at this time. We at Enbridge wanted to support Kickstand’s integrated approach to building potential in youth and saw where we could make a difference.
We awarded MHF an Enbridge Fueling Futures grant of $15,000 to help the organization operate its Edmonton location, and begin planning for its second urban space in Calgary. We’re proud to support this integrated youth services model to bring out the best in youth.
Kickstand’s model includes regular consultation with a youth advisory council to ensure the centers reflect the needs of the people they serve. The council, for example, recommended the drop-in model because booking—and keeping—an appointment with a mental health professional can often be triggering and intimidating.
Through research and data evaluation across the integrated youth services network, a youth’s first experience is very intentional—they’re always greeted with a “yes-we-can-help” approach, and they’re met where they’re at and when they’re ready. Advisory council members also sat with architects and helped shape the decor for the centers, like painting break-out rooms different colours, so youth could choose a space that matches their mood on a given day.
Great care has been put into selecting which services and practitioners will be available and shaping their approach to connecting with youth.
“This generation is our future, and they need help,” Knechtel says. “Kickstand is how we’re going to make changes happen for them.”
