March 2 - 8, 2026, is Black Mental Health Week (BMHW). This year’s theme is The Power of Connection: Ancestral Wisdom in a Digital Age. The theme focuses on how community, technology, and tradition can work together for healing. It explores how we carry forward the teachings, traditions, and healing practices of our ancestors while navigating a fast-paced, hyperconnected digital landscape. (see: Taibu - Black Mental Health Week and City of Toronto - Black Mental Health Week)
BMHW is an initiative dedicated to raising awareness of the mental health impacts of anti-Black racism and fostering healing within Black communities. In 2020, the City of Toronto officially declared the first Monday of March as Toronto’s first Black Mental Health Day and the Provincial Government passed Bill 178, officially recognizing Black Mental Health Day. In 2021, the initiative grew into a full week.
Black mental health is shaped by connection to family, community, culture, and the learning spaces young people move through every day. It is not only about individual coping, but about the conditions schools and systems create.
Throughout the week, we will centre youth, families, and research to reflect on what care, wellbeing, and connection truly require.