October 11, 2024
Every year at Let’s Keep Talking, the Foundation recognizes inspiring mental health leaders who use their own experiences to drive change, build supports, fight stigma, and improve the lives of those struggling with mental illness or addiction in their communities. Let’s Keep Talking Award recipients either live with mental illness or addiction themselves or support those who do.
Meet THE 2024 Award Recipients
Outstanding Individual: Stacy Darku
Having lost her sister to suicide, Stacy now dedicates her energy to making a difference in the lives of others. Stacy is a Registered Counselling Therapist and named her practice, Esinam Counselling, after her late sister. In response to community needs, Stacy built a team of culturally diverse counselling therapists who can offer support in different languages. She specializes in helping individuals who’ve experienced trauma, domestic violence, addiction, grief, and racial injustice.
Outstanding Individual: Nancy Everson-Berrigan
Nancy is the Peer Support Coordinator at the 7th Step Society of Nova Scotia. In recovery for the past seven years, she uses her lived experience to help members who are struggling with addiction and in conflict with the law. Having started as a Peer Support Worker, Nancy now oversees new employees and programming in addition to working with 7th Step Canada as a Project Manager for its Pardon Me program.
Outstanding Individual: Vincent MacDonald
Vincent is a compassionate specialist in bereavement counselling. He started the Waterbugs and Dragonflies Bereaved Parents Support Group to help parents who’ve lost children work through their grief and find healing in community. Vince is a retired educator and school principal who has shared his knowledge through various speaking engagements over the years.
Outstanding Individual: Sam Madore
Sam lives with anxiety and depression and has turned her lived experiences into a platform for normalizing conversations about mental health. Her podcast Let Me Overthink About It features honest discussions about living with mental illness and overcoming challenges, and she delivers public talks on mental health at schools and events in her community.
Outstanding Individual: Ian Smith
Clearwater Seafoods, one of North America’s largest vertically integrated seafood companies, has implemented comprehensive educational programming for employees on mental health. Clearwater employees, including captains and senior crew members who operate in remote isolated environments, are better trained on how to recognize signs of mental health challenges and access support resources. Clearwater CEO Ian Smith shares this award with the many team members who have been instrumental in the company’s commitment to prioritize mental wellness initiatives in the workplace.
Outstanding Advocate: Clara Hughes
Clara Hughes is one of Canada’s most decorated Olympians and the only athlete in Olympic history to win multiple medals in both summer and winter games. But Clara’s accomplishments extend well beyond the sporting world. As the founding spokesperson for Bell Let’s Talk, Hughes helped jumpstart the conversation on mental health in Canada. She believes in the power of story to enact change and that each person has one to share. Her memoir Open Heart, Open Mind details Clara’s personal journey through physical and mental pain to a life where love and understanding can thrive. She is a vocal mental health advocate, and her story inspires many to find their own personal path to mental resilience.
AWARD SPONSORS
Thank you to our Let’s Keep Talking Award sponsors.
