BONNYVILLE – Bonnyville Family & Community Support Services (FCSS) is hosting a men's night at the Bonnyville Legion on Aug. 22 from 7 to 9 p.m.
This sober event will include an evening of darts, pool, and games, and offer men the space to get together for a fun and casual evening.
FCSS aims to provide fun social events for men that benefit their mental health, without the pressures of being specifically mental health focused.
“There’s so much stigma around mental health. It's definitely gotten better,” said Heidi DeBusschere, FCSS Community Programmer. “Mental health conversations are noticeably more accepted in the oil field and work force, but our aim is to make participating in an event like this fun, without the pressure of calling it a men’s mental health night.”
DeBusschere spoke about the importance of holding sober events.
“We did a focus group and went through what we thought was needed in the community, what the like lack of services were, and one big thing was there is very limited sober activities. So, we just wanted to make sure there was something that everyone could enjoy and there wasn't the pressure of the alcohol around.”
DeBusschere says FCSS intends to do different men’s nights monthly.
“Each month we have a new one planned with a different theme or topic, and we partner with different agencies for them. We have one in October coming up that we partnered with the fire department, and we’re going to do ‘challenge the firefighter’ events.”
“I grew up in a very small town outside of Bonnyville. It was such a taboo thing to mention mental health, male or female, so making it a normal thing is great,” said DeBusschere.
