CHEK Upside: Stigma-Free Society holding online fundraiser

Since 2010, the Stigma-Free Society has been breaking down the barriers surrounding mental health.

“I truly believe that no matter what our challenges we can all live extraordinary lives,” says co-founder and president Andrea Paquette.

Paquette created the foundation after dealing with her own struggles with mental health.

“When I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder back in 2005, it was a tragedy for me, I nearly lost my life,” says Paquette.

“I went through a terrible time barely making it through and after some years of healing I decided I wanted to create a charity.”

Pre-pandemic the society would offer in-person lessons and programs for schools and workplaces, but for the past two years, Stigma-Free has had to adapt to an online platform.

“We Zoom in our teams to schools across Canada, but Victoria is special to me because this is where the charity was born,” says Paquette.

“So we still do a lot of work in British Columbia and doing some new work up in Northern B.C. as well.”

Donations are a key part of keeping Stigma-Free’s programs running and the society will be hosting an online fundraiser featuring interviews, a video series and a livestream component.

“We do interviews with community members and show personal stories of people who have persevered, people who have lived experience and then the live component is with me on a live stream,” says Paquette.

“I’ll be sharing our programs, answering questions and just really engaging with the community.”

Moving forward there are big plans for the future of the society.

“What’s really exciting is that we’re aiming for $750,000 because we are scaling up, we want to offer our programs on a larger scale and go beyond B.C. borders,” says Paquette.

“Stay at home in many ways of course and focus in, but there’s a lot of people who need mental health support across the country.”

The Stigma-Free Faces Fundraiser runs until May 26. For more information visit the Stigma-Free website.

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