The topic of mental health for men is often surrounded by stigma and silence, making it a complex and multifaceted issue.
Several factors contribute to this reality, including a lack of emotional literacy, the influence of traditional masculinity norms and societal judgment, systemic barriers to mental health care shaped by cultural beliefs, and skewed media representations, among others.
Though the community is evolving and a comprehensive mental health online resource, Men & designed to help men is soon coming to Airdrie.
The Men & Project is an online resource for mental and relational well-being for men and collective community care.
While society has gone through phases in the 21st century that have reminded us that men also face struggles, such as violence, mental health challenges and more, these issues are often still under recognized and overlooked.
COVID was a challenging period that affected many individuals, including men. Before the pandemic, Kim Ruse, the CEO of FearIsNotLove, discovered that men were seeking help online before reaching out to others or utilizing traditional resources.
“At the time, there weren’t many great resources out there online for men that were engaging, respectful, and non-judgemental to help men deal with conflicts,” Ruse shared.
Therefore, the recommendation came forward to Calgary’s charitable non-profit, FearIsNotLove to take a look at how it can construct a tool that would work well with men.
Even though the project hasn’t received any additional funding from the city yet, Ruse is working with Airdrie.
We’re talking to the city right now about how we can support Airdrie, so we’ve applied for funding through the Government of Alberta,” Rude said. “I believe the City of Airdrie wants to support us.”
During the Feb. 18 city council meeting, a letter of support was read to ratify FearIsNotLove organization’s application to the Province of Alberta’s Family Violence Prevention Grant for $188,000 in funding to increase its capacity and promotion of a prevention called Men & in the community of Airdrie.
“The city is committed to ensuring Airdrie residents have access to quality preventive support and services that provide residents a life free from violence and abuse,” Mayor Peter Brown said in a letter.
Currently, FearIsNotLove is looking to work with law enforcement in Airdrie to bring more awareness to resources available specifically for men.
Ruse suggests that men often have had multiple interactions with the police—ranging from two to six times—due to non-domestic violence-related incidents during conversations or confrontations.
While there are numerous resources available to victims when domestic violence charges are filed, these resources may not always adequately address the specific needs of men, often focusing primarily on anger management as the main solution.
“If you look on the website, there’s a Men & card, which is handed out by police in Calgary, Edmonton and Grand Prairie… we’d also like to bring that to Airdrie as well,” Ruse expressed.
Since 1991, FearIsNotLove has had a men’s counselling program though the organization began to look deeper into the program and ensure men’s voices were heard and they were being engaged in a manner that was respectful and helped them.
“We hired a Forge Centre for Dignity-Driven Leadership as consultant and they [conducted] a big process with men that had been through our services and [other] men from the community that were looking for services,” Ruse said.
Through the consultation process with men, Forge Centre for Dignity-Driven Leadership made recommendations for FearIsNotLove on how they could improve their existing services to men in the community, who were looking to improve their relationships.
“One of those recommendations was to build a digital hub or a digital resource for men, who have used violence or abuse in their relationships and are looking to heal and repair those relationships and improve their lives,” Ruse expressed.
Ruse also added that she learned through men using the non-profit’s services that they have been asking for help for several years before they ended up in more intrusive or extensive services.
As a result, Men & was launched in 2021 as a digital resource hub for men, which offers 300 plus trusted Canadian resources, accessible support, information for the complex mental and relational health challenges men face.
It is a social venture that works with government and agencies to engage communities across Canada with data-driven interventions and resources that offer reliable support to men that they can trust.
As the website mentions, “the world didn’t need just another website.” Therefore, Men & offers evidence-based tools, the men's line a free and accessible content and resource hub,
According to Ruse, it was neither about building something new or replacing what may already exist, it was about finding great resources for men and ensuring they get connected in a timely manner.
Men & Project aims to forge healthier communities and contributes to long-term violence prevention.
“It is connected to a 24 hours a day, seven days a week crisis line for men,” Ruse said, adding that “we’ve about 1,000 calls to the crisis line from Calgary and surrounding areas such as Airdrie, Cochrane, Chestermere, High River, Banff and more.”
In the first year of launching the digital toolkit, approximately 2,000 men downloaded it. Additionally, on average, 20,000 visitors visited the site each month. Not to mention, the toolkit itself has been downloaded over thousands of times.
FearIsNotLove is a charitable non-profit organization that used to be the Calgary women’s shelter, which was later re-branded as a place that supports those impacted by domestic violence and abuse to put in the work to end the issue in the community.
Ruse says the non-profit has been around for 50 years now.
