We believe that good mental health is foundational
women and girls' empowerment.
Our goal is simple:
we're committing to supporting 100,000 women and girls
by 2025.
This year, we're investing $5m in women's
mental health and empowerment globally.
Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning actor and filmmaker, Taraji P. Henson, rose to fame after her breakout performance in the film Hustle & Flow, and is known for her portrayals of iconic women such as Cookie Lyon in Empire, NASA mathematician Katherine G. Johnson in Hidden Figures and Miss Hannigan in Annie Live! in fall 2018, Henson launched the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation in honor of her late father with a mission to eradicate stigmas around mental health in the African-American community. Henson and her best friend and foundation partner, Tracie Jade, co-host the facebook watch series Peace of Mind with Taraji.
Catherine Tinsley, PhD, is an expert on gender intelligent leadership, gender parity and workforce development, negotiation and decision making. Tinsley's research has been covered by CNN, NBC, FOX, ABC, Bloomberg, Fortune, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Usa Today and Huffington Post, and she has presented at numerous conferences, including the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Named one of Oprah Winfrey's Super Soul 100, Latham Thomas is the founder of Mama Glow, a global maternal health and education brand serving birthing people along the childbearing continuum. She's also the co-founder of the Mama Glow Foundation, advancing reproductive justice and birth equity through education, advocacy and the arts.
Elisha London is an entrepreneur and leading global mental health advocate. She is the founder of United for Global Mental Health and was the Heads Together campaign director for the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. She is now the CEO and founder of Prospira Global, a boutique mental health consultancy. She is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.
Executive director of Resonate, a leading women's empowerment charity in East Africa, Norette Turimuci's career has focused on empowering women and girls, like her daughter, and creating future women leaders.
Jazz thornton is a mental health advocate, international speaker, film director and author. Having overcome childhood abuse and multiple suicide attempts, Thornton has now dedicated her life to speaking hope and creating change in the area of mental health. Thornton co-founded Voices of Hope and in 2021, she was awarded Young New Zealander of the year.
Sofia Wylie is a Kid's Choice Award-nominated film and TV actor who got her start playing Buffy Driscoll in the Disney series Andie Mack. She can currently be seen in Disney+'s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and Netflix's The School for Good and Evil. At age 15, Wylie founded AIFOS Entertainment, a production company that spotlights female voices and stories. A vocal mental health advocate, Wylie is a supporter of Each Mind Matters, which aims to raise awareness, break stigmas and advance mental health.
Mika Kumahira is a fierce advocate for women's empowerment, helping corporations and workplaces across Japan promote diversity, equity, inclusion, innovation and co-creation through Showa Women's University Career College and 21st Century Learning Institute. In addition, as Chair of Kumahira Security Foundation, she supports citizenship education and promotes the Peaceable School Program, a conflict management training program for K-12 students. Kumahira flexes her advisory skills counseling a broad range of for-profit and non-profit clients in leadership development, change management and human and organization development.
The Kate Spade New York Foundation has partnered with Black Girls Smile to provide in-person and virtual mental health literacy workshops in new york through the SHE’s Mentally Prepared program. SHE’s Mentally Prepared aims to increase mental health literacy, decrease mental health stigmas and increase access to mental health resources. the program provides monthly 90-minute workshops facilitated by licensed mental health providers focusing on in-depth topics that specifically impact the mental health and wellbeing of Black women and girls.
The Born This Way Foundation supports the mental health of young people and works with them to create a kinder and braver world. The Born This Way Foundation leverages innovative programming and partnerships to model, convene and support healthy conversations about mental wellness in order to connect youth with evidence-based resources and services that support their mental health. Through our national partnership, we are working to provide self-care kits for women. Each September, we also join Born This Way Foundation’s kindness campaign, #BeKind21, which calls communities to make kindness a habit by committing to 21 days of kindness.
The goal of the Find Your Anchor movement is suicide prevention, awareness and education. The physical form of Find Your Anchor is a small blue box packed with various materials designed to inspire, soothe and offer support. We are partnering with Find Your Anchor to bring their anchor boxes to women and girls in the U.S.
the kate spade new york foundation supports Girls Inc. of NYC to scale and develop Mind Body Matters, an interactive digitized curriculum to improve the mental wellbeing of teen girls, consequently improving their academic performance and opportunity. Not only have we supported the development of this curriculum, but to further this work, we have also provided grant funding to scale up Mind Body Matters across new york city using a “train-the-trainer” model to establish an in-service teacher training to support effective teaching practices and implement the Mind Body Matters program citywide.
the kate spade new york foundation has partnered with Girls Who Code for over six years to create a pipeline of future female technologists in the U.S. by supporting their Summer Immersion Program. The program teaches girls — including anyone who identifies as female, regardless of assignment at birth — and non-binary or gender nonconforming students the computer science skills they need to impact their community while preparing for a tech career.
the kate spade new york foundation supports the growth of grace institute’s talent services team, as they build out additional employment services to help the 200 Grace Institute graduates gain and retain employment. The Grace Institute provides job-skills training, counseling, placement services and continuous learning opportunities that lead to upwardly mobile employment, for underserved and underrepresented women in NYC.
the kate spade new york foundation continues to support the International Rescue Committee’s first formal gender-based career development program in new york. This year, the foundation has provided grant funding to evolve IRC of NY’s POWER program with the aim to help vulnerable refugee and immigrant women achieve upward economic mobility, realize their self-worth, and improve their mental health.
the kate spade new york foundation has supported The Lower East Side Girls Club to launch pilot years one & two of programming for their Center for Wellbeing and Happiness, which opened in 2020. With a mix of virtual and in-person programming catered to girls, their mothers, and the broader lower east side community, the center aims to strengthen and support healthy lifestyle behaviors in young adults and their families, thus reducing their health risks and improving their health outcomes.
the kate spade new york foundation supports The Moth’s Young Women’s Voices Project. The Young Women’s Voices Project helps women in new york city deploy their greatest asset—their authentic voice and experiences. we also partnered with The Moth to provide women and girls with a slew of programs and workshops to shape and craft their personal stories, including high school story SLAM residencies for girls, community workshops for women and more, building their voice, confidence and power within themselves.
the kate spade new york foundation has provided grant funding to the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, supporting 2,500 women and girls to recognize and respond to emerging signs of mental health and substance use challenges in crisis and non-crisis situations, through the mental health first aid training. The National Council is working with local community organizations around the city, with a focus on providing training that is tailored to women’s and girls’ mental health and wellbeing.
Through grant funding, employee volunteerism, product donation and more, we support Rising Tide Capital’s suite of programs that provide women entrepreneurs lacking access to services and resources. They receive business training, mentorship, mental health support and the financial access needed to launch and manage a successful small business. Together we are working to increase the economic opportunity, agency and support the mental health of low-income women and their families.
We work with Per Scholas to help low-income women launch and succeed in tech careers. the kate spade new york foundation supports Per Scholas’ Women in Tech track, which trains, certifies and advances 180+ women a year into technical job placements in new york. Together we are working to address and solve the interrelated problems that have previously impeded women’s progress in the technology sector.
The kate spade new york foundation supports project basta’s expansion of programming for female first-generation college graduates. through the grant, Basta will expand their career development support for first-generation women of color through their 10-week fellowship program, as well as to provide a new set of offerings to their female-identifying alumnae, empowering them to grow and develop in their careers.
If you are struggling with your own
mental health and are in need of
support or
someone to talk to, please
note we are not a mental health provider
ourselves.
Please reach out to your local
mental health providers, or emergency
services if you
are in need of urgent
assistance. Free and confidential support
is also available
through the following
free phone and text support in
the following countries:
Text KSHELPS to 741741 to
connect with Crisis Text Line
in
the U.S. or text KSHELPS to
686868 to connect with Crisis
Text Line powered by Kids Help
Phone in Canada.
Text SHOUT to 85258 for
free, 24/7
crisis response
support from Shout.
Visit telljp.com/lifeline or call
03-5774-0992
Looking to learn more about mental
health and wellbeing? We've
partnered
with the Mental Health
Coalition to create a resource to do
just that. Because
simply being more
aware can unlock possibilities
for any woman.