On September 19th, the Movember Foundation held a first of its kind reception on Parliament Hill to kick off a weeklong summit in Ottawa to celebrate the Men’s Depression and Suicide Network (MDSN) a program out of UBC funded by Movember. The summit was hosted by Bruce Stanton, MP for Simcoe-North, Deputy Speaker and Chair of Committees of the Whole and attended by Co-Founder and Chief MoBro Adam Garone, the Global Advisory Committee and distinguished Members of Parliament.
The event allowed Movember to get in front of key policymakers and government officials to share that we are one of the leading funders of men's mental health and suicide prevention programs in Canada. With 37 projects and $23 million in funding since 2013 in the men's mental health space, we're continuing to focus on a serious issue facing men in this country. With 3 out of 4 suicides being men and 7 men a day killing themselves in Canada alone, it's a crisis we cannot ignore.
The reception was followed by four days of events and meetings across the city to showcase the incredible projects by the MDSN, who is dedicated to developing, implementing, and formally evaluating a suite of innovative men-centered, face-to-face and online technology interventions. One of these programs included a powerful performance on the Hill by Contact Upload!, a theatre piece that's a part of the Veteran's Transition Network (VTN) that pays tribute to the challenges veteran's face upon returning from deployments like Afghanistan. Moved by the performance, co-founder and Chief Mo Bro Adam Garone opened up to the military men, “As a 9 year veteran of special military forces, I can honestly say to you today that this is my proudest moment of co-founding Movember.” Contact Upload! was attended by Harjit Sajjan, Minister of National Defence, the Honourable Kent Hehr, Minister of Veterans Affairs, the Honourable Geoff Regan, Speaker of the House of Commons and a number of Members of Parliament.
After a successful week of advocacy and building awareness, the Movember Foundation looks forward to spending more time in Ottawa and is proud to support programs like MDSN that support men's mental health issues. We would also like to thank Bruce Stanton for hosting us, and Celina Caesar-Chavannes, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister for showing her support.
To see all images from our time in Ottawa, visit our Flickr here:https://flic.kr/s/aHskJ2zj7j
