Student Highlight: Meet the Students Behind Seedle
Making Mental Health Support Easier Across Universities
When second-year Bachelor of Health Sciences students Yehonatan Shakarghi, Sharmin Dabidiyan, Tobore Akpoigbe, and William Wu started talking about mental health on campus, one theme kept coming up again and again. Support exists, but finding it can feel overwhelming.
From long waitlists to scattered information and outdated links, navigating mental health and wellness resources can be a challenge, especially when someone is already feeling stressed or unsure where to turn. As students in the Bachelor of Health Sciences program, the four founders are deeply engaged with questions of health equity, access to care, and community wellbeing, both inside and outside the classroom. That shared perspective led them to ask a simple but powerful question. What if there were one clear, student-friendly place to start?
That question became seedle.ca, a non-profit mental health and wellness resource directory created by students, for students.
Why Seedle?
Accessing support should be straightforward. While Queen’s and the surrounding Kingston community offer a wide range of mental health and wellness services, information about these resources is often fragmented, difficult to navigate, or hard to verify. Seedle was created to reduce that friction and make the step between deciding to seek support and actually finding it a little easier.
Seedle brings together verified, up-to-date resources located within 25 kilometres of campus, offering a centralized starting point for students who may not know where to begin.
What You’ll Find on Seedle
The platform includes a broad range of on and off-campus supports, including:
- Counselling services
- Crisis and distress supports
- Sexual violence resources
- Substance use supports
- 2SLGBTQIA+ services
- Indigenous services
- Sexual health and medical clinics
- Academic supports
- Accessibility and disability services
- Cross-cultural supports
- Faith and spiritual care
- Physical activity resources
- Clothing/household items
Recognizing that mental well-being is closely tied to basic needs, Seedle also includes information on food insecurity resources, housing and shelter options, and access to clothing and household items.
Built With Students in Mind
Seedle is designed to be practical, accessible, and respectful of privacy. Students can filter resources based on what matters most to them, including whether services are offered in person or virtually, whether they provide identity-affirming or culturally relevant care, and whether they are covered under OHIP or UHIP.
No account creation is required, and no personal information is collected. All listed resources are verified and reviewed regularly, so students can trust that what they are seeing is accurate and current.
Looking Ahead
For the Seedle team, this project reflects both their academic interests and their broader ambitions. They are motivated by the idea that access to care is just as important as care itself, and that small structural barriers can make a big difference in whether someone gets help.
Seedle aims to support students by making those services easier to find, easier to understand, and easier to access.
To explore available mental health and wellness supports, visit seedle.ca.
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