Living Well With Schizophrenia

Help us grow Living Well with Schizophrenia into an even more valuable resource.

With your help we’re building an online resource and community for people living with schizophrenia and their loved ones.


Our Story

When Lauren was first diagnosed, one of the first places she turned to learn more about schizophrenia was YouTube. It was so valuable to be able to hear about other people’s experience with the illness.

When we started the Living Well with Schizophrenia YouTube channel our goal was to create a few short videos that would help others the same way they first helped Lauren.



Now, a little over a year and a half after starting the channel, it’s grown faster and larger than we ever imagined. We’ve been overwhelmed by both the needs our audience are facing and the responsibility of serving those needs.


Why We’re Asking For Your Support

We‘ve been so fortunate to have an audience that gives us some support through Patreon - the channel wouldn’t be what it is today without them. Patreon is really wonderful because it allows us to predict a relatively steady monthly income. But while we’re incredibly grateful for this support it’s not enough to sustain our work on the channel. Also we understand that a monthly subscription model isn't the best option for everyone, and that a one time donation might be preferred, which is part of the reason why we're introducing this GoFundMe.

Aside from Patreon, we also have advertising on our videos where possible, which helps. However our videos are constantly demonetized and we basically have to censor ourselves or avoid certain important topics if we want to keep our videos advertiser friendly. Also we understand the value of creating certain videos (like expert interviews) that simply don’t get mass appeal or bring in much ad revenue - but are very valuable to our core audience.

Funding production of the channel, and covering basic costs has been a tricky dance. We are beginning to explore partnerships with brands that we believe in and find value in for our audience - such as online counselling - but our options are very limited, especially since we have not accepted funds from any pharmaceutical companies.

We are primarily audience funded, and would like to be able to stay that way so as to stay as true to you, our audience, as possible. 

We have a vision for how we can grow the channel into an even more valuable resource. We need your help to make that happen.


How Your Donation Will Help

Our ultimate goal is to create a non-profit organization that increases the quality of life of all those who live with schizophrenia and related psychosis spectrum illnesses.


Part of that means continuing to create videos. And improving on the videos we create (like adding subtitles to all our videos in order to increase their accessibility).

But we also want to branch out and do more. We would like to work with a designer to create free printable resources that will help people anywhere manage the illness (like a mental wellness journal, symptom tracker, emergency preparedness plan, and medication tracking chart).

And branching out even more we would like to begin development of a website that compliments the YouTube channel (we know not everyone accesses information through YouTube). Our current website is basically just a contact form, it doesn’t host any valuable content or articles. We want to change that, but it’s a big job and we’ll need help setting it up and creating content for it.

And there’s a lot more we want to do which we’ve broken down into a rough timeline and when we think we could accomplish them.

Short term (months):
- More educational and experience videos
- Adding subtitles to all videos and in different major languages
- Beginning an online newsletter
- Development of printable resources
- More expert interviews
- Beginning development on website
- Maintaining production equipment

Medium term (1-2 years):
- Website launch
- Development of an online community
- Course development

Long term (2-3 years):
- Establishment of a non-profit entity
- First in person summit 

Note about establishing a non-profit:
Our original goal was to establish a non-profit on a much shorter timeline. After consulting with accountants and lawyers, we determined that the best course of action was to first achieve financial sustainability - otherwise the costs of running the non-profit could actually prevent successfully establishing it. 


Tokens Of Our Appreciation

We’re so grateful for any amount of support you can give. If you are able to give at one of the three suggested tiers below we would love to send you some small tokens of our appreciation.

$30 - A thank you note and two unique Living Well With Schizophrenia stickers (stickers are about 2 inches)


$60 - The previous tier PLUS a Mental Health Sticker Pack with four unique stickers (stickers are roughly 3 inches)


$100+ - The previous tier PLUS two beautiful Living Well With Schizophrenia lapel pins (a great combo to share one with a friend or loved one!) PLUS an additional Mental Health Sticker Pack. (The pins are about 3/4 to 1 inch wide). 


Even though our top tier is $100 you can absolutely donate more than that amount if you wish. Likewise you can also donate less than $30. No matter your contribution, your generosity and support is greatly appreciated and will really help us move this initiative forward!

Note: After your donation we'll send you a thank-you note through the GoFundMe system so that we can get your mailing address to send the pins and/or stickers. 

If a monetary donation is not within your means right now, no worries, we understand. Here are a number of other ways to show your support:
- Please share this GoFundMe campaign and share why you believe in the cause
- Make sure you are subscribed to the YouTube channel, and join the conversations in the comments section of our videos
- Share the YouTube channel and/or your favourite video of ours through various social medias
- Use our YouTube channel as a talking point to keep breaking down stigma with those around you


Message from Lauren & Rob

Thank you! With your help today this will be the tipping point for Living Well With Schizophrenia.

We believe that we can make a significant impact on the lives of all of those living with schizophrenia and related psychosis spectrum illnesses.  

Thank you for believing in us. We're so grateful for your support.

Warm regards,

Lauren & Rob (Creators of Living Well With Schizophrenia)