Elephant Space

Milan Seki is a passionate advocate for empowering youth and breaking the taboo around mental health—when she was eight years old, she moved to Canada from Japan. In middle school, she was bullied–as cyber bullying was just rising in prevalence, her school was unable to help or address the issue. Milan had to work up the courage to go to school while feeling the pressure to fit in with her classmates and struggled to become successful academically.  As a result, she suffered from depression and anxiety for years.

Reflecting on this experience, she was inspired to found Elephant Space—a not for profit organization that provides board games, snacks, homework assistance, workshops and mentorship development programs for youth between 12-14 years old. The space is also filled with trained volunteer facilitators to support and foster personal growth. At its heart, Elephant Space builds on the idea of play therapy—a form of counseling that uses play (such as through board games) to ease communication with people, especially children and  youth, to provide tools to work as a team, creating comfort to disclose experiences and create a sense of community and belonging.