We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mark Ostrom. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mark below.

Mark, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Our Joy Mobile launched in fall 2023.

Picture a busy festival or fair—music pulsing, crowds moving, lights flashing. For some, it’s exhilarating. For others, it’s overwhelming, even unbearable.
That’s where the Joy Mobile comes in.

Parked in the heart of high-energy environments, the Joy Mobile is a mobile sensory refuge designed for anyone who needs a break from the chaos. It’s a place to step away, breathe, and reset.

The moment you enter, the outside world fades. The lighting is dim and calming. Harsh brightness is replaced with soft, gentle light. The space is intentionally quiet and soundproofed, muting the noise of the event almost instantly. Textured, tactile materials invite touch and help ground the senses. Every detail is chosen to calm the nervous system, not stimulate it.

Inside, there is no pressure—just room to regroup.

Guests often arrive tense and overstimulated. Within minutes, breathing slows, shoulders drop, and the body shifts out of fight-or-flight. In under ten minutes, many are ready to rejoin the event—regulated, not exhausted.

Our next iteration, the Joy Zone, expands this concept for larger events, offering the same darkness, quiet, and sensory grounding at a bigger scale.
Together, our mobile spaces make events more accessible and humane—offering something rare in a loud world: permission to pause, reset, and return.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am the founder and Executive Director of Joy Collaborative, a Minnesota-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit that blends design excellence with social impact. After nearly 30 years in the architecture and design industry, I launched Joy Collaborative to create personalized, life-affirming spaces—known as Joy Rooms—for those with life-limiting conditions.

Drawing on deep ties within the design, architecture, and contractor communities, I built Joy Collaborative from the ground up, assembling a dedicated network of professionals and volunteers. Since its founding in 2020, the organization has completed 17 projects across the Twin Cities, reaching over 7,000 individuals with benefits evident on Day One of their new Joy Room space.

With disabilities as often an invisible yet vast community, our new Joy Mobile Initiatives program pulls our services outside of Minneapolis to serve a broader audience we had never before imagined.

Under my leadership, Joy Collaborative has partnered with organizations such as Lifetime Fitness, Gardner Builders, Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union, Special Olympics, Make A Wish MN and the Hubbard Broadcasting Foundation, all working together to transform spaces—and lives—through the power of purposeful design.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

A request came in for Jayden, a 12 year old boy with a high degree of autism. With two other siblings with special needs, and a mom in law school, it was challenging to manage what was often disruptive behavior at home. His daily routine was limited to school and home and little else. Anxiety for him manifested in social withdrawal, emotional upheaval, and it was not unusual for him to use family members as punching bags. After creating his “Arena” project which reflected his love of sports (and custom tennis shoes!) Jayden labeled his space his “apartment” and slowly started inviting more guests to his space and his physical behaviors were significantly minimized.

We see improved outlooks all the time. Having Jayden come home 3 months later to announce “I’m joining the weight club” no one could have been more surprised or thrilled. In his mom’s words, “Jayden’s Joy Room has brought us peace and Jayden a whole new way to be successful. His room is directly tied to his improved sense of self, and is allowing him to grow into the person we know he can be.”

My initial idea to bridge Habitat for Humanity and wish-granting organizations has become life changing. Not just for those we serve, but their care teams, their supportive community, and brings joy to the teams of volunteers able to use their talents and see the direct and tangible benefits of those they get to meet.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

A request came in for Jayden, a 12 year old boy with a high degree of autism. With two other siblings with special needs, and a mom in law school, it was challenging to manage what was often disruptive behavior at home. His daily routine was limited to school and home and little else. After creating his “Arena” project reflecting his love of sports and custom tennis shoes, Jayden labeled his space his “apartment” and slowly started inviting more guests to his space and his physical behaviors were significantly minimized.

When we at Joy say we are all about improving outlook for our recipients, having Jayden come home 3 months later to announced “I’m joining the weight club” no one could have been more surprised or thrilled. In his mom’s words, “Jayden’s Joy Room has brought us peace and Jayden a whole new way to be successful. His room is directly tied to his improved sense of self, and is allowing him to grow in to the person we know he can be.”

My initial idea to bridge Habitat for Humanity and wish-granting organizations has become life changing. Not just for those we serve, but their care teams, their supportive community, and brings joy to the teams of volunteers able to use their talents and see the direct and tangible benefits of those they get to meet

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

I had the idea for Joy Collaborative in college. I launched it 30 years later.

I am fiscally conservative by nature, but extraverted in my lust for design. I needed to balance those opposing forces to build the confidence, means and methods, and network that allowed Joy to come into existence.

The launch point came when I had a great job working for a Fortune 50 company, but was diagnosed with depression. This was a clear misalignment of passion for the future of what Joy was to become, and the soullessness of my professional practice which no longer filled my cup. I quit my fulltime job and free-floated for a year. It was freeing and scary but I loved it. Having a supportive spouse was the best! She understood what Joy could do, and did whatever she could to make that year less turbulent. This was an explosive time of creativity and network building that brought me into the vision I had for myself and how I could best serve others.

It’s been a beautiful ride. I am so proud of those who have rallied together to improve the lives of so many others. Together we are sharing an expansive vision around design and possibilities!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.joycollaborative.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joycollaborative_/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joycollaborative.org/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-ostrom-17994b9/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@joycollaborative9348/featured

Image Credits

Spacecrafting