Moms Stop the Harm society

What Moms Stop the Harm society does

Moms Stop the Harm society (MSTH) is a Canadian non-profit society founded in 2016 and headquartered in Victoria, British Columbia, operating as a national network of families impacted by substance-use-related harms and deaths. Its core offering is a peer-support model in which members with lived experience of losing loved ones to overdose or supporting loved ones with substance use disorder provide structured mutual aid, advocacy, and policy engagement. The organization delivers three primary services: Healing Hearts grief support groups (peer-led bereavement groups), Holding Hope support groups (peer-led groups for families of people currently living with addiction), and a national support phone line (1.866.355.MSTH) with text/SMS capabilities operating Thursdays and Fridays. Complementary products include the MSTH Connects webinar series, advocacy campaigns and action alerts targeting MPs and provincial representatives, and published annual reports (2019-2020 through 2024-2025).

The underlying delivery technology is the peer support model itself — facilitated, lived-experience-led group sessions and trained peer-supporter staffing — supported by a Squarespace-hosted website, email newsletter infrastructure, social media channels, and event/webinar hosting. There is no proprietary software platform, mobile application, or API; service delivery is relationship-based rather than technology-mediated. The organization operates with 1-10 employees and operates two adjacent operating subs (Healing Hearts Canada and Holding Hope Canada) under its umbrella.

MSTH's business model is donation- and grant-funded, with all services provided free of charge to participants. The only quantified revenue signal is a Health Canada contribution of $168,056 dated 2023-07-06 supporting the national peer support phone line; additional funding flows from public donations and likely additional Health Canada tranches but are not disclosed. The go-to-market motion is community-led, relying on word-of-mouth, lived-experience referrals, content marketing (blog, newsletter), events/webinars, and coalition advocacy partnerships (RELAIM Collective, AVI Health & Community Services, Harm Reduction Nurses Association, University of Alberta). The customer base is a horizontal persona — Canadian families affected by substance-use-related harms and deaths — segmented primarily by relationship to the deceased or user rather than by industry or size.

Name

Moms Stop the Harm society

Legal name

Moms Stop The Harm

Website

https://momsstoptheharm.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Moms Stop the Harm society is a Canadian non-profit network of families impacted by substance-use-related harms and deaths, providing free peer-led bereavement and addiction support groups, a national support phone line, and harm-reduction policy advocacy across Canada.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Peer Support and Advocacy Services

NAICS

Individual and Family Services (6241)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Family & Parenting Support Services (BPAGAEAC)

akta.pro secondary industry

Maternal, Child & Family Health Organizations (BPAGACAF)

Keywords

• Peer support services
• Grief bereavement support
• Harm reduction advocacy
• Substance use support
• Nonprofit society

Headquarters

HQ city

Denman Island

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Donations and Membership: The organization operates as a non-profit society funded primarily through donations and member contributions. No fee-based services are offered; all support programs are provided free of charge to participants.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Moms Stop the Harm (MSTH) is a Canadian non-profit society that provides free peer-led bereavement and family support to people impacted by substance-use-related harms and deaths. Its core offerings are Healing Hearts grief support groups, Holding Hope support groups for families of people living with addiction, and a national peer support phone line with text/SMS support. The organization also runs advocacy campaigns for evidence-based drug policy and harm reduction, and hosts educational webinars and events.

Product overview

Moms Stop the Harm (MSTH) is a peer support and advocacy organization that offers a suite of interconnected services for families impacted by substance-use-related harms. The core offerings include Healing Hearts (bereavement support groups for those who have lost loved ones), Holding Hope (support groups for families with loved ones currently using substances), and a National Support Phone Line with text capabilities. These are complemented by advocacy campaigns, educational events/webinars, and published research. The organization operates as a network model rather than a platform, with services delivered through trained peer supporters who have lived experience.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Healing Hearts Grief Support Groups A free, peer-led bereavement support group for families grieving the loss of a loved one to substance-use-related harms. Group facilitators have personal lived experience with substance-related loss, and groups run on an open-format peer support model.
• Holding Hope Support Groups Free peer-led support groups for families with loved ones living with addiction (substance use disorder) across Canada, providing mutual support, shared resources, and connection through lived experience.
• National Support Phone Line A national peer support phone line providing a confidential space for anyone impacted by substance use or loss due to overdose, operated by trained peer supporters. Also offers text/SMS support; operates Thursdays and Fridays, 3:00-9:00 PM PT / 5:00-11:00 PM CT / 6:00 PM-12:00 AM ET.
• Advocacy Actions and Campaigns Member-facing advocacy campaigns and urgent action alerts driving policy change on harm reduction, safer supply, and against involuntary treatment, with calls to contact MPs and provincial representatives.
• MSTH Connects Events Educational webinars and events featuring research presentations, community stories, and policy discussions related to substance use harms and harm reduction, including the MSTH Connects webinar series and collaborative webinars with partner collectives.

Named customers1 record

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• RECLAIM CollectivecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMSTH participates in collaborative webinars with RECLAIM Collective, including the Support. Don't Punish 2026 webinar series. RECLAIM Collective focuses on harm reduction advocacy and coalition building across movements.
• AVI Health & Community ServicesminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMSTH connects with AVI Health & Community Services through harm reduction networks. Corey Ranger, Clinical Director at AVI, serves as a panelist in MSTH-affiliated events and represents the Harm Reduction Nurses Association.
• University of AlbertaminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerDr. Holly Mathias, Assistant Professor of Family Science at University of Alberta, collaborated with MSTH on community-based research project with 31 family members providing care for loved ones who use drugs in rural Prairie communities.
• Inner City Health and Wellness ProgramminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerDr. Holly Mathias serves as Research Scientist with the Inner City Health and Wellness Program and collaborated with MSTH on research regarding family caregiving in rural communities.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Broken No More: Grassroots organization of bereaved families dealing with substance-use deaths that combines peer support with drug-policy advocacy. Functionally mirrors MSTH's blended support-plus-policy model.
• Families for Addiction Recovery (FAR Canada): Canadian non-profit that supports families of loved ones with addiction, offering peer-driven education and advocacy. Directly comparable to MSTH in mission (family-side addiction support), Canada-only footprint, and reliance on lived-experience facilitators.
• Team Sharing: US-based mutual-support network of families impacted by substance-use related loss and addiction. Shares MSTH's peer-led bereavement/support group model and family-only membership orientation, though it operates across a different geography.
• Canadian Drug Policy Coalition: Canadian coalition advocating for drug-policy reform grounded in human rights and harm reduction. MSTH shares the drug-policy advocacy agenda and the Canadian focus, although CDPC is more policy-research-led than peer-support-led.

Broad incumbents

• Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA): Federally funded Canadian body that produces national evidence, guidance, and policy advice on substance use. Overlaps with MSTH at the policy level and shares the harm-reduction framing, but operates at the systems/evidence layer rather than the family peer-support layer.
• Drug Policy Alliance: Major US-based organization promoting drug-policy reform and harm reduction. Same advocacy mission as MSTH but a much larger institution operating across a broader portfolio rather than a family-support network.
• Harm Reduction International: Global NGO advancing harm-reduction policy and practice for people who use drugs. Operates in the same harm-reduction advocacy space as MSTH but at an international systems level rather than direct family service delivery.
• Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA): National Canadian mental-health charity that runs peer-support and family-support programming across multiple conditions. Overlaps with MSTH on the family-mental-health-and-addiction support mission but at much greater scale and breadth.

Emerging players

• CATIE: Canadian HIV/hepatitis C knowledge-exchange organization that increasingly intersects with harm reduction. Touches similar service populations (people who use drugs and their families) but its primary mission is information dissemination rather than peer grief support.

Regional players

• AVI Health and Community Services: BC-based harm-reduction service provider that delivers direct drug-user services and is a documented partner of MSTH. Operates on the opposite side of the harm-reduction network (service delivery for users), complementing MSTH's family-side support.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/momsstoptheharm
• Facebookfacebook.com/MomsStopTheHarm
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/moms-stop-the-harm

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Moms Stop the Harm society