More Joy event offers resources and hope

An event held to share mental health stories and struggles and to battle stigma

January 19, 2026, 12:08 pm
Ashley Bochek

Christalee Froese of Montmartre, third from right, is the organizer of the More Joy event.

More Joy is hosting its sixth event this year at the Conexus Art Centre in Regina. The evening highlights entertainment, variety of mental health resources, and stories of mental health journeys. It will be held Wednesday, January 28.

Christalee Froese of Montmartre, the organizer of the event, sees the More Joy movement as a family and communal space where everyone feels welcomed and supported through friends, family, and other mental health survivors.

“This is our sixth year of More Joy Regina held at the Conexus Art Centre on January 28. It’s from 6 pm to 10 pm on Bell Let’s Talk day.

“Our speakers are from 7 pm to 8:15 pm. This year we have Brit Dort speaking she is a TSN Broadcaster, who has struggled with her own versions of anxiety and social anxiety. She will share her story about that and some of her coping strategies.

“Then, we are also really excited to have Dr Omosade Ogundare. She is a professor at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. She came to a More Joy event about three years ago when she was in a very dark low period and her friend just showed up at her door and told her she was coming.

“After that, she accessed some of our free counselling and we didn’t find out until about six months later that she is actually a psychiatrist, and she has now turned into one of our large supporters. She credits the More Joy movement and I think it is a very cool story. That is what More Joy is all about.

Rewards have come in the form of others being helped even when we didn’t know we were helping others and so she is an example of that and that is what it is all about.”

Christalee Froese of Montmartre, founder of the More Joy Movement, with Moosomin-Montmartre MLA Kevin Weedmark at the More Joy event last year.

All about hope
Froese explains the More Joy movement and the experience it offers to the public.

“The whole idea is for people to leave with hope. Sometimes it is difficult to talk about mental health and we want people who may be suffering or know someone who is suffering to be heard and comforted. It is a great multigenerational event.

“We find that people often come with others or as groups for support and when you’re sitting at a mental health event with people who are there to help you it adds this extra layer of support and when you leave that building, you’re on the same page, share information, and you can have next steps.

“That is why we say it is about hope because sometimes when you’re trying to help somebody it feels hopeless or when you’re trying to help yourself it can feel hopeless, so we just want you to come and know there are others who have made it through it and there are people to walk you home and walk beside you throughout your mental health journey.”

Creating community
Froese experienced her own mental health struggles before creating the More Joy movement and learned people need each other through these hardships.

“When I was struggling, I realized when you can’t help yourself it takes a village, a community, it takes your family.

“At first, the More Joy event was about creating a community where talking about mental health is normalized because every single person has mental health. The fact that you can go and hear people talk openly about their struggles and normalize the conversation and normalize getting help—some statistics show that six out of 10 of us will have mental health issues over a lifetime.

Brit Dort, left, and JJ Voss, above, will be part of the More Joy event this year.

“So when you are standing in a grocery line six out of 10 of us will go through it and another statistic is 50 per cent of us will not get help. This is just one of those places where we are sending the message that it is okay to get help and that there always is help.”

Froese is motivated to normalize speaking openly about mental health.
“One of the deceptions of depression is it tells you lies and one of the lies it tells you is you will never get better and there is no help, and it is just part of the illness. This whole idea of gathering together with friends, family, and other sufferers, it is just simply to give hope and to challenge that lie.”

What to expect
A variety of booths will be placed around the venue offering mental health resources, tools, and services.

“Doors open at 6 pm and it is in the basement of the Conexus Art Centre,” explains Froese. “It is a massive space, and we have booths all around the outside of it. These include being greeted by a St John Ambulance Therapy Dog, there is also a puppy room you can go to and play with the puppies from Bright Eyes Dog Rescue, we have a hands-on booth where you write on a sticky note what your joy is and we have a psychologist and some psychiatric nurses there to help you identify what Feel Good chemicals that elicits and you can put that on a wall. In the mental health space, there are many free resources, but it is sometimes just knowing about them so when you walk in that room you will see all of it. Every year I get calls with different booths so this year we have Nar-Anon so for people who suffer with narcotics addictions. We are going to have Al-Anon this year for alcoholism. We will have online therapy to provide and there are so many counsellor booths that are free in Saskatchewan that people don’t simply know about.”

“At 7 pm the speeches start and go for an hour and a half. We try to give you a mix of real-life stories which is Brit, and coping methods which is Dr Ogundare and some entertainment, so we also have musician JJ Voss. At the end, you can meet the speakers as well and I think that is where the magic happens, and powerful conversations are held. We hope people leave with this sense of joy and hope.”

Froese says she enjoys weeks after the event when people reach out regarding resources for themselves or their loved ones.

“The night is wonderful. We have the speakers then all of the mental health booths. This year we have about 12 booths set up from the Canadian Mental Health Association with offerings of free online therapy through the U of R.
It is all gratifying, but for me the gratification comes in the following week when I get emails and messages saying how the event gave them courage, or hope, or saying they got their child in therapy or asking for more contacts from different booths and that is where the magic happens. It is removing the stigma around mental health.”

She says each year guest speakers tend to reach out to her with their mental health journey they would like to share at More Joy.

“They tend to find their way to us. We try to have a variety that will speak to different people, so we have had men in other years, women other times, young people, and older people. Brit as our keynote speaker brings the youthful energy to it. She is in her 20s and she will talk about starting a career with social anxiety and what tools and coping methods she has. We are hoping it will attract a younger crowd and a crowd that is familiar with her through the Roughriders. Dr Ogundare is going to bring the wisdom of having been a psychiatrist for many years and having been through mental health issues herself. She will bring the theoretical and practical steps of what you can do next.”

Making connections
Froese says the event sparks long-term bonds between individuals building a supportive community.

“The real joy for me comes from the connections we make together as a group and after when people reach out asking about contacts for different booths. So many people make so many connections and exchange resources and use these resources throughout the year, so it is not just a one-night event—you get helping tools and strategies that you take with you and I think for me that gives me the greatest joy that people are spreading it to others.

Ticket Info
Froese explains anyone can purchase tickets for the event online at MoreJoy.ca
“You can get tickets at MoreJoy.ca tickets are $35 now and they are $55 at the door so I recommend getting them early. You can use a credit card online. A lot of people come from out of town for this and so I want them to know our sponsor hotel is the Marriott Residence Inn and they’re giving us rooms at about $100 off and giving free rooms to all of our speakers so they are a great partner. I have found people tend to come from out of their communities because they don’t want to go to a mental health event in their own community—the stigma is still there—I just want people to know that travelling to this many of us will be staying at the Marriott and we want you to feel welcomed no matter where you are from. We can all heal together.”