For Anna Kydd, director of The SHM Foundation, progress in youth mental health starts with investing in community-led innovation. Through its flagship program, Ember Mental Health, the foundation supports local initiatives across the globe that are tackling mental health challenges in creative, culturally grounded ways. Kydd rejects the “silver bullet” mentality common in global health funding, arguing that meaningful change depends on nurturing many small-scale solutions rather than scaling a few top-down models.

Her team responds by:

• Providing unrestricted, flexible funding so organizations can adapt to changing community needs.
• Offering one-on-one mentoring and tailored support from SHM’s interdisciplinary staff, including researchers, designers, and social enterprise experts.
• Prioritizing the wellbeing of leaders through a dedicated Wellbeing Fund, launched during COVID to help prevent burnout and sustain frontline mental health workers.
• Creating connections between grassroots initiatives to strengthen what Kydd calls the “ecosystem” or “connective tissue” that allows community innovations to grow together.

Partners supported by Ember have stabilized and expanded, from an art therapy project with incarcerated youth in Madagascar to youth-led theater initiatives in Kenya and Mozambique. The Wellbeing Fund has also proven transformative, with some recipients using it for therapy, team retreats, or creative outlets that improved morale and resilience.

Kydd’s reflections point to a shift in mindset: community work is not a “nice-to-have” but an essential driver of mental health progress. She believes funders must embrace trust-based philanthropy, reduce restrictions, and measure impact in ways that make sense to communities themselves. For Kydd, the real opportunity lies in supporting the diversity of voices and methods that already exist—and in ensuring they have the space and resources to flourish.

Zuzana Figerova, head of development and philanthropy at The SHM Foundation and the Ember Mental Health Fund, oversees programs in global and youth mental health with a focus on participatory, community-led approaches. The organization began its youth mental health work in South Africa in 2014, co-designing psychosocial support programs with adolescents affected by HIV. Over time, this expanded to include education and employment support in South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, addressing the combined effects of health, economic hardship, and stigma.

Figerova explains that the foundation’s approach is intentionally small-scale and personalized. Each adolescent receives detailed and holistic support, and programs emphasize community, belonging, and shared leadership. She notes that young people “don’t always want to be the strong ones,” and that real change comes from creating nurturing spaces rather than focusing solely on resilience.

The SHM Foundation’s work includes:

• Running long-term psychosocial and educational programs for youth affected by HIV.
• Funding over 50 grassroots organizations through the Ember Fund since 2018.
• Supporting local, youth-led initiatives in Africa, Asia, and South America that use creative and context-specific methods such as mountain biking, poetry, or art to promote mental health and collective healing.
• Providing in-kind support and mentorship alongside funding to strengthen organizations’ storytelling, fundraising, and monitoring capacity.

The impact is reflected in the growth of these grassroots organizations, many of which have moved from small budgets to financial stability and greater reach. Hundreds of adolescents in SHM’s own programs have completed university or secured jobs while maintaining good health and sense of purpose.

Figerova acknowledges continuing challenges, including limited funding for global mental health and exhaustion among grassroots leaders. The foundation’s focus remains on listening, collaborating, and sustaining a “collective approach to addressing the current challenges.”