Vanisha Breault is a powerful and passionate motivational speaker, and the Founder and Executive Director of the not for profit; Terminator Foundation.

Vanisha has been a pillar of strength in her Community and coined a “Social Justice Warrior”. Through her efforts she has received recognition, most recently, The Nadine Stirling Memorial Award in 2018 from the Canadian Mental Health Association of Alberta, the ‘National Every Day Hero’ in 2014, and also the recipient of The Wild Rose Award in 2016.

Over the years she has continued in her unwavering efforts to attack the stigma of addiction and mental health through the development of self-help initiatives and the facilitation of community participation. She has been a guest speaker at the 24th Annual AAFSLW Conference, Women Talk Calgary, the International Association of Women in Police Conference, and various workshops & Town Hall meetings on the importance of our youth, addiction, mental health, and support for families.

Her determination has caught the attention of several media outlets over the years which included being featured by Global National News, CTV, City News, the Calgary Journal, The Calgary Herald, HuffPost and several other networks.

Vanisha currently sits on the Alberta College of Family Physicians- Opioid Response Initiative Steering Committee, the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse and Addiction Committee for A Youth Centered Approach to Opioid Use Treatment/Advisory Board, and the Harm Reduction Module for Primary Care Working Group Committee. She lives in Calgary, Alberta, and has four children with four grandchildren.

Vanisha started her endeavor for the Terminator Foundation while battling to save her then 14 year old daughter’s life, Eden, as she started her decent into the heinous and undiscriminating grasp of drug addiction. Through countless attempts to get Eden help, using every resource and tool available that she could muster, Vanisha repeatedly encountered a system ill-equipped to support the disease of addiction. The unapologetic and undiscriminating disease of addiction left her precious daughter homeless, destitute and heavily dependent upon fentanyl and heroin. As a mother the emotional horror, desperation, and powerlessness was all consuming. Seeing the effects firsthand Vanisha resolved to make it her mission to eradicate the shame and indignity associated with the stigma around addiction and to provide practical supports for both our youth and their families.

Having seen firsthand the effects of shame, indignity, and the lack of understanding associated with addiction, Vanisha turned her full attention to the opioid epidemic.

First, she established a 5km run/walk to raise awareness around the issue of youth addiction. Through this initiative, she saw the demand for more support and felt obligated to do more which led her into launching the Tri Terminator Program a couple years after the first awareness run. This program is a collaboration of integrated health care systems that support youth and young adults in their effort to recover from addiction and mental health issues. The objective of the Terminator Foundation is to strengthen recovery through a continuum of care model that incorporates physical exercise in the sport of triathlon training, personal coaching, and community engagement. Now five years into this initiative, the Terminator Foundation is revolutionizing the lives of youth and young adults using the sport of triathlon!

The Terminator Foundation is now partnered with several local agencies including, the Calgary Police Service, the Canadian Mental Health Association, Fresh Start Recovery Center and more!