Connection is the heart of climate resilience.
We support young people to understand their climate emotions, connect with their communities, and take meaningful action in a changing world.
Our Mission
Break The Divide supports young people in navigating the emotional realities of the climate crisis. We create spaces where youth can understand their climate emotions, express what they are carrying, and feel grounded in a community that sees and supports them. Through dialogue, facilitation, and shared learning, we help youth move from isolation and overwhelm toward belonging, clarity, and confidence.
Our programs bring together students, educators, and communities to strengthen resilience, build relationships, and share knowledge across cultures and experiences. We believe that connection is a crucial element of climate action. By supporting youth with accessible tools, peer support, and community rooted programming, we empower them to transform their emotions into meaningful action and to imagine futures that are abundant, just, and grounded in care.
Break The Divide (BTD) is a youth-led climate mental health nonprofit operating at the intersection of climate change, emotional resilience, and community building. Our work is grounded in peer-to-peer connection, dialogue, and place-based community-driven approaches that centre youth leadership in responding to both the climate crisis and the emotional crises it generates. Our programming equips young people with resources to understand their climate emotions, and connects communities with one another to build resilience and share knowledge amidst the climate crisis.
Our Vision
We are building a future where young people lead with courage, connection, and care.
As climate impacts intensify in communities across Canada and around the world, we envision young people who are supported to care for their mental health, grounded in their identities and cultures, and equipped to guide their communities through difficult conversations about climate emotions. Our vision is a future where youth help build the foundations of stronger, more connected communities through leadership, dialogue, and collective care. We imagine local spaces where young people facilitate conversations, strengthen relationships across differences, deepen connection to land and place, and help build communities that can respond to climate challenges with clarity, compassion, and shared purpose.
Our Values
Belonging and Connection
We foster spaces where young people feel safe, included, and supported. Connection to self, others, and place is at the centre of our work. We build communities where youth feel part of something larger than themselves and feel connected to each other, to land, and to their own identities.
Emotional Authenticity
We honour the full range of climate emotions and support youth in expressing their experiences with honesty. We cultivate a sense of psychological safety where the full spectrum of emotions joy, grief, empowerment, fear, and excitement can be shared openly. We help youth connect with embodied knowledge about the climate crisis and move toward healing and action that align with their emotions.
Youth Leadership
We trust the insight and creativity of young people. Our programs create opportunities for youth to lead, facilitate, and shape climate solutions in their communities. We prioritize peer leadership and peer facilitation and we train young people to act as mentors for others in their community.
Justice and Equity
We centre the experiences of racialized, Indigenous, newcomer, disabled, and 2SLGBTQ+ youth and communities. The impacts of climate change and the mental health burdens it creates are not felt equally across populations. Our work is grounded in justice and uplifts the perspectives of marginalized youth by recognizing how identity, culture, lived experience, and systemic barriers shape climate emotions.
Collective Action and Agency
We believe that communities grow stronger when people learn and act together. Through dialogue, collaboration, and shared learning, we support youth in taking meaningful action that reflects their values and visions for the future. We help young people build a sense of agency and responsibility, cultivating ownership over the present and optimism for the future rather than passive despair.
Our Impact
Youth Reached
Youth reached through dialogues, classroom workshops, fellowships, and international connections since 2016.
Schools and Youth Serving Organizations Engaged
Schools across Canada and internationally
- BC
- NWT
- Saskatchewan
- Ontario
- New Brunswick
- Bolivia / Taiwan / India / Siberia / Chile / South Africa
Educators Engaged
Educators through workshops, classroom visits, CECP, STARCAP, and resource sessions.
Volunteers and Youth Leaders Trained
Youth leaders trained as facilitators, peer mentors, or program contributors
- BC high school volunteers
- Toronto volunteer team
- STARCAP fellows
- National CECP contributors
- Regina facilitators and team
- General team
Workshops and Dialogues Delivered
Climate emotions sessions, workshops, and community dialogues delivered since 2016.
Geographic Reach
Engaged globally (Canada, Bolivia, Taiwan, India, Chile, South Africa, Siberia).
5 Canadian provinces and territories (BC, Saskatchewan, Ontario, NWT, Alberta occasionally)
Meet the Team
Core Staff Team
Abhay Sachal
Executive Director
Isabella Grajczyk
Programs Manager
Sid khan
Operations manager
Ready to Make a Difference?
Join our team of volunteers, educators, and facilitators who are transforming climate anxiety into action and building resilient communities.