Men & Stewards
Lead lasting change for men in your community.
Bring the right people, services, and resources together around a practical, dignity-centred way to engage men.
As a Men & Steward, you help create the conditions for Men & to take root and endure. You provide local leadership, credibility, and institutional support. Our team works alongside you with the research, strategy, tools, and guidance to turn that commitment into a coordinated Men & Community.
Your community already has people who care.
Men & helps communities build that shared approach. Together, we identify local strengths and gaps, bring formal and informal partners into the work, and develop practical pathways for men at different levels of need and readiness.
You do not have to build another program from the ground up. You lead the local commitment. Men & helps provide the method, infrastructure, and support to move it forward.
What may be missing is a shared way to reach men, connect the supports that already exist, and make the next step easier to find.
What it means to be a
Men & Steward
Stewards are the decision-makers, institutional anchors, funders, and sponsors who give a Men & Community the authority and durable support it needs.
Depending on your community, that could include leaders from municipalities, health and social services, community agencies, law enforcement, post-secondary institutions, employers, foundations, or other organizations invested in healthier relationships and safer, more connected communities.
As a Steward, you help:
Create a shared direction
Bring leaders and organizations together around a clearer, more coordinated approach to engaging men.
Connect what already exists
Identify local services, community assets, trusted relationships, and gaps in the pathway to support.
Build credibility and momentum
Use your influence to invite participation, strengthen partnerships, and make men’s mental, relational, and social health a sustained community priority.
Support long-term action
Help secure the relationships, resources, and accountability needed for the work to continue beyond a single campaign or event.
Men & is proudly used by
You bring local leadership. We bring a tested approach.
Every community is different. Men & is not a one-size-fits-all program.
We work with you to understand your context, build on what is already working, and create an approach that fits your community’s needs and capacity.
Support can include:
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Clarify your goals, identify the people who need to be involved, and assess where your community is ready to begin.
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Examine the formal services, informal supports, local champions, and existing pathways available to men. Together, we identify strengths, gaps, and opportunities for better connection.
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Turn insight into a practical Men & Community roadmap with clear priorities, roles, starting points, and next steps.
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Bring practitioners, organizations, community leaders, Champions, Animators, and other contributors into a connected local network.
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Adapt Men & campaigns, resources, learning tools, and training to help local partners engage men with dignity and offer a useful next step.
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Support your team through launch, decision-making, problem-solving, and the ongoing work of strengthening the community system.
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Help establish practical ways to learn from the work, communicate progress, and adapt the approach as your community develops.
From local commitment to coordinated action
1. Start with a conversation
We learn about your community, priorities, current efforts, and the change you want to support.
2. Find the right starting point
Together, we identify existing assets, important gaps, and the partners who can help move the work forward.
3. Build your Men & Community
We help shape the roadmap, local roles, engagement approach, tools, and support needed for activation.
4. Learn and strengthen
As the work develops, we help your community reflect, adapt, and build the relationships and infrastructure needed for lasting impact.
Jeff St. John, PhD
Founder and Lead, The Men & Project
Founder of Forge and creator of the Men & Project. Jeff is a scholar-practitioner, action researcher, consultant, and advisor whose work spans men’s engagement, dignity, social health, violence prevention, and community systems innovation.
Experience for complex community systems
Kim Ruse, MSW
Executive Advisor & Co-Lead, The Men & Project
CEO of Fear Is Not Love. Kim brings extensive experience in community and systems leadership, specialized family-violence services, organizational transformation, and the development of safer, more responsive supports.
Wade Belt, MC, CCC
Clinical Advisor, The Men & Project
Wade Belt is a therapist, clinical supervisor, and trainer specializing in gender-based violence. He works with men and survivors, bringing practical, dignity-driven approaches that support meaningful change for clients and practitioners.
David Turner
Associate, Indigenous Relations & Reconciliation
David Turner is a Non-Status Saulteaux and African American consultant and Indigenous relations leader with over 30 years of experience building cross-cultural understanding and advancing reconciliation across Canada.
Ryan Valley, MBA, MET
Lead, Digital Platform and Campaigns
Ryan Valley brings together strategy, design, media, and technology to create practical digital experiences that extend the reach and impact of Men &. His work spans digital learning, experience design, and multimedia storytelling.
Men & brings together applied research, community and systems leadership, service delivery experience, and years of work engaging men around mental, relational, and social health.
Our approach is dignity-driven, evidence-informed, and grounded in practice. It recognizes that men are more likely to move toward support and accountability when they are met with respect, offered practical choices, and connected to a next step that fits their readiness.
The work is supported by people who understand both sides of community change: the realities facing practitioners and families, and the leadership, partnerships, and sustained investment required to change systems.
Together with the wider Men & network, they help communities translate research and experience into practical action.
Who this is for
You have the authority or influence to convene organizations around a shared community priority.
Your system is struggling to reach men early, consistently, or without increasing shame and resistance.
Services exist, but the pathways between them are fragmented or difficult to navigate.
You want to strengthen men’s mental and social health without building another isolated program.
You are prepared to support a sustained community effort through leadership, partnership, funding, or sponsorship.
Becoming a Men & Steward be right for you if:
Build stronger and safer pathways for men and the people around them.
When men can find practical, dignified support earlier, communities are better positioned to strengthen relationships, support accountability, and connect people with appropriate help.
Men & gives your community a place to start and an experienced team to help you move forward.
Let’s talk about what Men & could look like in your community.
Tell us about your organization, community, and priorities. Our team will contact you to explore whether Men & is a good fit and identify a useful next step.
Working to engage men in a safer, healthier community?
Men & is proudly used by these organizations and many more
