By Kezia Royer-Burkett, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
On Thursday, November 13, 2025, ABRAR Trauma and Mental Health Services celebrated five years of transformative work with a milestone anniversary gala that blended elegance with purpose. Community leaders, philanthropists, and advocates gathered for an evening filled with powerful performances, stories of resilience, heartfelt speeches, and special recognition awards. The event was hosted by Sarah Ernest, founder of Ernest For Good Inc.
ABRAR Trauma and Mental Health Services, a federal not-for-profit founded in 2020, is dedicated to creating human-centred spaces where newcomers and immigrants can heal, grow, and rebuild. Based in Hamilton and active across Canada, the organization collaborates with partners including Kids Help Phone, YWCA Hamilton, and Humaniti to support marginalized youth, women, and families — particularly immigrant and newcomer communities.
Founder and CEO Abrar Mechmechia opened her speech with a moment of silence and prayer for lives lost this year in Gaza, Sudan, Congo, Jamaica, Haiti, and elsewhere around the world. Sharing her personal journey from Syria to Canada, she reflected on the vision that inspired her to create ABRAR.
“When I came to Canada after experiencing the conflict and revolution in Syria, I was carrying more than a suitcase,” she said. “I was carrying war, trauma, fear, and hope. I started noticing how my own trauma was surfacing. I had to face additional layers of migration trauma: the feeling of being unseen, of not speaking the language, of navigating a system that often didn’t reflect my experiences. And like so many others — especially youth, women, newcomers, and refugees — I struggled to find mental health care that truly saw me, that welcomed my language, my pain, and my healing. So I built it.”
Today, ABRAR offers one-to-one counselling, providing free, trauma-informed, culturally safe mental health care in clients’ native languages. “The demand has grown so quickly that we now have a waitlist,” Mechmechia shared. “It reflects not only the need, but also the trust our communities have placed in us.”
Creative expression sits at the heart of much of ABRAR’s programming. Their Creative Spaces initiative blends art, storytelling, and culture with healing. Over the past two years, the organization has piloted Needles and Narratives, a project using sewing and fashion to foster connection, along with Giving Art, an art therapy program for youth, and Seniors Cooking — initiatives that demonstrate how creativity and culture can open pathways to collective healing.
ABRAR’s impact now spans two community hubs in Hamilton with national programming across Ontario and Alberta, including Halton Region, Toronto, London, Calgary, and Kitchener.
“We’ve had the privilege of serving youth and women from Afghan, Arab, Sudanese, Somali, Latino, Ukrainian, and other newcomer communities — people living at the intersection of trauma, displacement, racism, and systemic barriers,” said Mechmechia.
A pre-recorded video from a youth participant named Seba offered a moving testament to ABRAR’s impact. Mechmechia introduced the clip by sharing, “Seba came to Canada at 17, feeling isolated, lost, and in pain she didn’t know how to name. She slowly, bravely, began to heal.”
In the video, Seba described experiencing depression after arriving in Canada, unsure if she could be helped at all. Encouraged by her father, she attended an ABRAR group session. “That first session, I spoke more than I had in a very long time,” she shared. “I left feeling light, and wanting more of those moments.”
Mechmechia emphasized that stories like Seba’s are far from rare. “We exist because the current mental health system was not built for everyone. But we are. And we’re proving what’s possible when care is culturally safe, trauma-informed, and rooted in belonging.”
However, she also underscored the urgency of expanding capacity. “Every week, we hear from young people just like Seba — newcomers navigating deep pain and searching for care that understands them. And far too often, we have to say: not yet. We have a long waitlist. That wait means more youth feeling alone, more families in distress, more young people sitting in silence. We cannot accept that.”
To meet this growing need, ABRAR announced the launch of a national campaign aimed at scaling services and ensuring that culturally safe, trauma-informed care becomes “not the exception, but the standard.”
The evening concluded with Special Recognition Awards celebrating the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion (HCCI), Humaniti International, and YWCA Hamilton, organizations whose leadership and partnership have helped strengthen the circle of care for newcomer and immigrant communities. As ABRAR Trauma and Mental Health Services steps into its next chapter of growth, the call to action is clear: expanding culturally safe, trauma-informed mental health support is not just necessary, but urgent. To learn more about ABRAR’s work or to contribute to their mission, visit abrarmh.ca or support their national campaign at Givergy.
