At 17 years old, Kelli Lemstra launched a mobile app dedicated to providing resources and accessible support to youth struggling with their mental health. Now, thanks to a youth leadership grant from the Prairie Action Foundation, Lemstra is getting ready to launch an expansion and reach more teens in need.
The Daily Difference is a project that Lemstra imagined when she was in Grade 10 and struggling with her own anxiety, depression, and self-image, and found herself searching for help.
“I didn't feel comfortable going to a counsellor and I was honestly kind of embarrassed to talk to my family about it,” said Lemstra. “I thought I was just being dramatic.”
She found that it was tough to find useful information about coping with mental health without approaching a counsellor or a parent, and so she wanted to create a platform where teens could access helpful resources, with no barriers.
“I wanted young people who also don’t know where to go or how to deal with (their mental health) to have a resource that’s easy and free,” said Lemstra. “A safe place that anybody could go to, where everything would be anonymous (and) there was no way anyone could get in trouble from it.”
This is where The Daily Difference began, and Lemstra started her journey of advocacy.
The app is entirely free and features a number of useful resources that are simple to use, including information about different issues like depression, suicidal thoughts and bullying, in addition to self-help techniques, a section for self-reflection and personal growth challenges to help pay it forward.
It also has a chat feature where users can contact either a counsellor or a member of the Moose Jaw Police Service with their questions about mental health, legal advice, or for help reaching out to parents or counsellors.
“You don't need permission from your parents or anything. You don't have to pay anything. There's no strings attached,” said Lemstra. “I just wanted to make it as easy as possible, and what's more accessible than an app?”
It was important to Lemstra to provide help with a whole range of issues that youth often face because she knows it can be difficult to reach out, especially for teens, and mental health is a topic that remains somewhat taboo for many people.
“I know there is a lot of people whose parents aren’t supportive when it comes to mental health,” said Lemstra. “So being able to have something to use if you feel uncomfortable reaching out, or have parents who won’t let you or don’t support it, that was important to me.”
Lemstra launched The Daily Difference in 2018, and the app is nearing 8,000 downloads as of the time of this publication. Since then, Lemstra has continued to be an advocate for mental health supports for teens, using her own experiences to help others with theirs.
“I was speaking at a youth camp last summer and this girl pulled me over after, (and) she gave me a big hug and told me that my app saved her life,” said Lemstra. “It was amazing (to hear) because there was a time when I didn’t think I could save my own life, and to go from such a low point to being able to help others who are in the same position (was a life-changing moment).”
The Daily Difference app offers mental health support and resources to youth with no barriers, in addition to the option to contact a counsellor or a Moose Jaw Police Service member with anonymous questions or in seek of advice.Lemstra is honoured not only to win a $3,000 grant from the Prairie Action Foundation, which is supported by Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan Russ Mirasty, but also to be held in such high regard for her work.
“To be noticed by an organization like (the MJPS) is so important, just as important to me as winning the award was, it was a huge honour,” said Lemstra. “I couldn’t have done it without their help.”
Lemstra and The Daily Difference is one of eight Youth Leadership Award winners this year, and Lemstra is actually the only individual recipient out of the group.
“I’ve been putting my heart and soul into it for the last two and a half years, and [now] just to know that such a small idea that I had in high school became this, where I’m getting recognized and getting awards, it’s mind-blowing,” said Lemstra. “It really makes me feel like people actually care about what I’m doing and I’m making a difference.”
Thanks to the award grant, Lemstra is ready to release yet another update to The Daily Difference on June 29, to expand the app’s resources to include nutrition and fitness advice.
She enlisted the help of a Moose Jaw-based kinesiologist and several nutritionists to develop different workout programs and dietary programs that will be made available on the app, to partner with the overall message of improving mental health.
“Exercising has helped my anxiety and depression in a way that I can’t even explain, and that has been kind of my way of coping with it, so I wanted to present that option for everybody else,” said Lemstra.
Lemstra will also use the remaining portion of the grant to expand the promotion of the app even further, using social media and speaking opportunities to reach out to more youth in the hopes of providing needed support.
The main message that Lemstra hopes her story gives teens is that it’s important to always go after your dreams and that reaching out for help is okay.
“It’s not shameful to reach out for help,” said Lemstra. “I would never have been able to do anything that I’ve done in the past three years without reaching out, and now I’m here.”
The Daily Difference app is available to download on all mobile devices from the appropriate app stores, and Lemstra is an active advocate for mental health on her Instagram page.
Lemstra also encourages any teens or youth seeking help with their mental health to reach out to trusted resources like Kids Help Phone, by calling 1 (800) 668-6868 or texting TALK to 686868.
