Jordin TooToo – Men’s Mental Health Night Feb 2021

The Cause

We host an annual "Men's Mental Health" event every February in our community. We partner with the local men's hockey team and bring in a guest speaker whose message is related to the topic of mental health. We have found that if we centre the event around a sport such as hockey or football, we are more likely to get the men in the room! Past guest speakers have been Clint Malarchuk, Gizmo Williams and Theo Fleury. After the presentation we host a "hot stove panel" with former hockey or football players and they tell stories of the "glory days". In the past 3 years we have managed to sell out this event. We sell tickets at $40 each which includes food, guest speaker and door prizes. We invite our guests to wear their favourite jersey too! We are looking to bring in Jordan TooToo for our event in February 2021. As our organization (Soul Sisters) is centred around mental health/wellness and suicide prevention, this has been a great way to reach out to the men in our community and to "continue the conversation" about these important topics.

Who Will it Benefit?

This event benefits our male population (although all genres are welcome). We try to target the 18-50 year old males with our "sports themed" mental health presentations. We have had numerous compliments on how great the evening is and people are more apt to share their struggles when they hear a sports hero talk about their journey with addiction, mental health and suicidal ideation. It is very powerful to witness. We also have these guest speakers talk to our local high school students before the evening presentation - that is approximately 750 kids that get the opportunity to hear this message.