
AONest for Social Service Agencies
Help your clients learn essential life skills while improving their mental health and emotional resilience
Canada is suffering from a mental health crisis: 1 in 5 will experience a mental health challenge this year but many do not have access to help.
Your social services agency likely works with at least one equity-deserving group. Does any of this sound familiar?
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“We support many people who suffer from mental health concerns.”
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“Our clients have challenges with drugs and alcohol. Many are experiencing homelessness and/or food insecurity. Some are violent – at home and out in the community. I do not know how to help them.”
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“Our workers have huge caseloads and not enough time to help everyone who needs it.”
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“We are under-staffed and over-worked. There are not enough hours in the day – and I feel like we are failing the people we support.”
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“We lack resources to provide our clients with support between sessions.”
Introducing AONest: the software system you can use to help the people you support navigate their mental health concerns
AONest™ is a self-guided digital solution that is available 24x7, making it a handy resource that an individual can use to work on their mental health concerns at any time. It provides an inclusive, confidential “space” for mental health and emotional well-being that supports people by meeting them where they are, online, and throughout their lives.
Why AONest?
AONest was built in collaboration with Anishnabeg Outreach (AO), a not-for-profit and registered charity. Recognizing the significant gaps in accessible and affordable mental health services, we developed the AONest system, a digital solution for navigating mental health challenges. AONest aims to provide easy access to resources that help users understand and improve their mental well-being, addressing challenges like anxiety, addictions, relationships, intimate partner violence, trauma, and grief, while also nurturing their spirit and fostering healing.
Through collaboration with service providers like your agency, we aim to enhance accessibility and inclusivity to mental health care, ensuring support reaches those who need it most. What makes the AONest unique is that it teaches individuals how to heal themselves, how to leverage their support networks and take ownership of their healing journeys.
Use the system in the way that best suits your needs
AONest can be used in different ways:
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Independently: Individuals can use AONest to learn essential life skills, improve their mental health, and build emotional well-being on their own time, at their own pace, from anywhere.
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Worker-led: Case workers can use the AONest lessons and worksheets to guide small group discussions. They can tailor the concepts and examples to suit the needs of their groups.
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In addition to talk therapy/psychotherapy: An individual who is already engaged with a therapist can add AONest to their mental health toolkit and use it when therapy is not available (e.g., after hours).
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easy-to-use
self-guided
comprehensive
Understand how emotions impact well-being
Developed, reviewed, and curated by experts (e.g., registered psychologists and psychotherapists), AONest consists of dozens of courses and hundreds of lessons and corresponding worksheets. Together, these resources help individuals discover strategies to deal with challenges in everyday life.
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The courses address specific areas of mental health – everything from managing stress, anxiety, and anger to navigating breakups, handling finances, and dealing with grief. Users can watch videos and complete worksheets that interest them so the AONest resources combine into infinite learning pathways. An individual’s unique learning pathway is based on their specific interests, skills, and needs.

The material often crosses over between courses and a user’s learning will build as they dive into more areas.
Build emotional intelligence
A user’s self-guided mental health journey often starts with the AONest Emotional Intelligence (EQ) course which introduces different emotions and provides strategies for building emotional intelligence and resilience.




After completing the EQ course, the individual should be better able to:
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Understand, identify, regulate, communicate, and navigate emotional triggers, responses, and interactions,
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Understand the emotional needs of others,
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Embrace the needs of different people,
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Navigate different social dynamics,
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Work through conflicts with increased ability,
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Improve relationships.
The emotional intelligence course is a tool that can help people become more self-aware. It can help point an individual in the right direction so they can uncover new areas that may improve their mental health and emotional well-being. For example, after taking the course, a person might decide to spend some time exploring strategies to manage their anxiety or deal with grief, or they might explore other areas of interest. As they create their learning pathway, they will probably find that the information in new courses relates to previous courses they completed.
To get a sense of how AONest introduces a concept, watch the “Benefits of Understanding Your Emotions” video above, or click below.
Learn essential life skills
When an individual has addressed some of the mental health concerns that can cause challenges, they feel ready to tackle other challenges. Many individuals who use the support of social service agencies also require help with day-to-day activities like accessing community resources or finding safe and stable housing. AONest can help individuals learn new life skills:

Navigate all stages of life
AONest is a comprehensive system to help people navigate all of life’s stages, including:
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Education
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Employment
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Relationships
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Parenting
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Senior Support
The content is always available whenever a user needs it: 24x7. By working through the courses, AONest users learn to understand emotions and how they relate to mental well-being, improve their mental health, boost their resilience, build their spirit, and increase their emotional well-being – at any stage of life.
Watch a quick demo
The AONest team is constantly expanding the tools and resources included in AONest. To see the system in action, watch our quick walkthrough video.
Earn rewards
As an individual works through the AONest materials, they receive rewards for completing lessons and courses. AONest grants a feather for every video a user watches, a golden feather whenever a user completes ten video lessons, and a course badge when the individual has completed all lessons in a course. Rewards appear on the user's dashboard, along with progress bars to show completion status for each course they have started. This video gives a quick overview:
Adopt a self-guided approach to managing mental health
The AONest solution is:
Professionally curated
Digital
Self-guided
Always available
At your own pace
Private
Easy to use
Benefit from expert content that covers strategies for navigating all stages of life.
Work on your mental health using a software solution. All you need is an internet connection and comfortable space.
Complete the initial emotional intelligence program and use it as a tool to help you determine other areas that can help improve your emotional well-being.
Use AONest anytime, anywhere – whenever you want to work on your mental health. If you also take advantage of talk therapy and/or psychotherapy, AONest can also be a bridge between appointments.
Follow the self-guided program and spend as much time as you need on any topic of interest.
You just need to be honest with yourself.
Gain new skills and understand your mental well-being with a toolkit of information, resources, and processes: by watching the videos and completing the worksheets, you will find the strategies that are best suited for you.
Get AONest for your agency
Are you ready to explore how you can use AONest with the people your agency supports?