OUR Why

The idea for the Headsup Concussion Advocacy Network (HeadsupCAN) was initially brought to life in 2017 by co-founders Ryan Sutton and Seth Mendelsohn when they created a social purpose brand that donated 15% of all sales to the Canadian Concussion Centre. The original idea for the company originated from their own experiences with the injury and the experiences of their close friends, each of whom was impacted by the injury in different ways. 

In 2020, Ryan and Seth took the leap to start the non-profit organization HeadsupCAN to focus more on expanding social programming for people with lived experience and building their network within the concussion and health sector. 

Early on in our journey, Ryan and Seth began highlighting the experiences of people who had sustained a concussion in an effort to shed light on the individualized realities of the injury. After hearing from hundreds of people affected by the injury it became abundantly clear that people's experiences did not always align with current best practices or guidelines. 

For years, concussion research, policy, programming and education was focused on specific areas that lacked the patient perspective. A perspective that we just so happened to believe is the most important of them all. As we have grown in the space, we realized that our voice, the voice of all the people who have shared their experiences with us, can truly make a difference in all facets of society in relation to the injury. 

That is why we are so dedicated to creating unique opportunities to share the lived experience perspective and to advocate on behalf of everyone who has sustained the injury or who may (knock on wood) sustain one in the future. On top of this, we are dedicated to creating programs partnered with industry leading experts who can help provide the evidence based facts to our experiences. A combination of evidence based research, education and awareness with our lived experience approach is truly what makes our organization unique and a true, up and coming leader in the space of concussions. 

Rising to the challenge

Our goal is to generate concussion awareness and research through our unique lived experience approach while also providing leading edge concussion education programs that effectively utilizes different forms of media and leverages existing resources.

Our ambition is to be the national leader in concussion awareness and education by providing people who have sustained a concussion a platform to share their experiences knowing it can be utilized to help inform concussion education, awareness and research programming. 

Our drive to make connections and learn from all the amazing people in the space already doing great work in the concussion field is key to ensuring our patient advocacy efforts remain vigilant. Connecting with industry partners and growing our network’s reach is one way we continue to rise to the challenge and ensure the patient perspective is at the forefront of every decision made related to concussion.

Mission, Vision, Values