Kids’ Health Links Foundation builds clinically supported digital communities that help youth aged 13-23 facing illness or grief reduce isolation, connect with peers who face similar experiences, and build resilience through safe, monitored engagement. Both spent time in hospital, and experienced isolation and disconnection from friends, family and their social communities. Kids' Health Links Foun
dation was created to answer the need of enabling a sense of normalcy in children's hospitals through techno-social connection. KHLF launched Upopolis in 2007 with the goal of using social technology to alleviate the stress, isolation and loneliness felt by Canada's hospitalized and chronically ill youth, and to keep them connected with their family and friends. The Foundation’s mission and its programs have expanded since its founding and continue to evolve. KHLF believes that positive emotional well-being can be fostered by maintaining family connections and encouraging active social participation. By providing technology that enables this well-being, we hope to help children and teens heal faster and better overcome traumatic medical experiences. KHLF has also created two distinct online-libraries of valuable profession-specific information, tools and resources to foster communities of practice and equip health care professionals to do their jobs better with the children and youth they serve. Upedia is our technology for the Child Life Specialists (CLS) and Umind is our technology for frontline child & youth mental health workers.
