awareness, understanding, mindfulness.
ABOUT US
Free Your Mind Mental Health Society, or Free Your Mind, is a youth-led not-for-profit. It was founded with youth mental health in mind. One in five Canadian youths will experience a serious mental health struggle in any given year, and only a quarter of them will receive the help they need and deserve.
Stigma prevents struggling youth from seeking help, and our founders are determined to change that. Free Your Mind draws on the power of real, young voices and amplifies them. We speak out about mental health through social media, blogging, and our community events.
Our Story
Two years ago, Jenny Li founded Free Your Mind. At the time, Jenny was only 17 years old. Free Your Mind was never meant to be an ongoing program, much less a society. Jenny, who had suffered from mental health complications for over a decade, only wanted to build a team and host an event for mental health education.
Jenny’s struggle with poor mental health began at the age of 5. At that time, their family immigrated from China. Jenny was often bullied for their looks and their way of speaking. Their classmates picked on them for their broken English and the shape of their eyes. Jenny continued to suffer through junior high, where they struggled through two years of constant sexual harassment. While they didn’t know it at the time, Jenny suffered from depression and two anxiety disorders. Along the way, Jenny learned the value of resilience and turned their painful experiences into the desire to do good. Now, Jenny works hard to overcome their troubles and to embrace who they are, including their non-binary gender identity.
In June of 2019, the founders of Free Your Mind planned, organized, and completed Project mindfulness, the mental health event Jenny wanted to see. Within two years, Free Your Mind evolved from a one-time project into a registered not-for-profit.
Our Directors
Our Events team
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Events Planner
Navigating through unfamiliar environments can be challenging, particularly for young adults. During her high school years, Tram has learned about the significance of mental health awareness and remains a staunch advocate for it. However, she’s come to the realization that advocacy alone falls short, as not everyone has access to the necessary support. This aspiration has found a home in Free Your Mind. Tram could share that aspiration with other well-minded individuals, helping others and also embarking on a personal growth journey herself.
(He/Him)
Events Planner
Daniel is a nutritional science graduate from the University of British Columbia, currently residing in Vancouver and seeking professional opportunities. He joined Free Your Mind because of his passion for nutrition and interest of connecting mental health with food, as well as his desire to seek changes and support youths in having their voices heard. In his free time, Daniel enjoys reading, exploring, learning new things, playing games, and of course surfing the internet!
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Events Planner
Jiwon is currently in grade 10 and attending secondary school in Coquitlam, BC. He came to Canada to experience new things, new people, and a new environment. He joined the Free Your Mind event team to support students, especially international students, who are struggling with mental health. His ultimate goal in Free Your Mind is to make a better youth society with no one suffering from mental health problems. In his free time, he spends most of his time working out at the gym and watching movies with his friends.
(She/Her)
Events Planner
Kasturi is a Grade 10 student from Markham Ontario. When she's not stressing about math, she enjoys baking, reading, and listening to music. She joined Free Your Mind with a great interest in mental health awareness and supporting youth wellbeing. She plans to pursue a career in the health sciences, while also continuing to support mental health advocacy.
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Events Planner
Saumya is a grade 12 student with a strong passion for mental health awareness and reducing stigma. Saumya is dedicated to fostering a more inclusive and understanding environment. In her free time, she enjoys baking, reading, going for walks, and writing. Through Free Your Mind, Saumya aims to further promote acceptance and support for mental health.
Our Video creation team
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Director of Video Creation
Hi there, you can call me Cindy . I’m a first year student at the University of Calgary studying psychology. I’m very passionate about behavioural science and mental health, and I believe that mental health is crucial to people’s everyday lives. I’m also a stylized realism artist as well as a comic artist/writer. I like to play chess, the guitar, raising baby fish, and enjoy researching about plants during my free time. I’ve got 5 adorable parrots, and a basement filled with propagating plants at my home. It is a pleasure working with FYM!
(He/Him)
Video Creator
Felix is a grade 12 student attending Saskatoon’s Evan Hardy Collegiate. He has a knack for using video editing, visual storytelling, and cinematography to create productions that focus the world through their lenses, and he is hoping to use such a power to deliver awareness and understanding on the vital topic of mental health. His hobbies include design, guitar, programming, and game development, as well as reading essays, watching documentaries, and waxing poetic. Felix has a distinct interest in philosophy and, on a larger scale, the quest to understand, contemplate, and improve the contemporary human condition. He is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the Free Your Mind Initiative to assemble a more mindful future, one message at a time.
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Video Creator
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Video Creator
Our marketing team
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Director of Marketing
Nita is currently an undergraduate student studying Psychology at the University of Alberta. She has always been passionate about mental health, as well as communicating with others through creative forms such as art. Through Free Your Mind, she hopes to help others gain knowledge and awareness of the intricacies of mental health and maintaining wellness for those struggling and those in the community who want to help. She's excited to work with the team to provide the public with insight and inspiration.
(She/Her)
Digital Marketer
Toik is a third-year psychology student who dreams about doing art therapy with youth who struggle with mental illness. She is a passionate advocate of mental well-being and actively tries to reduce stigma in her community. Aside from her studies, she spends her free time making art, whether it be drawing, embroidery, scrapbooking, or painting, among other mediums.
(She/Her)
Digital Marketer
Rahi is a tenth grade high school student passionate about understanding and broadening awareness around mental health. She is Indo-Canadian and takes great pride in her cultural identity, which she actively strengthens and promotes within her community. Through her dedication to knowledge, and sharing it with others, she hopes to foster acceptance, empathy, and positivity of the perception of mental health, and is incredibly thankful for Free Your Mind providing her with the opportunity to do so. In her spare time, she can be found reading, painting, baking, and exploring mathematical concepts.
(She/Her)
Digital Marketer
Land Acknowledgement
In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge that we live, work and play on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda Nations, the Métis Nation (Region 3), and all people who make their homes in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta.