Access Youth Outreach Services Society

Access' goal is to provide outreach support and services to at-risk youth in the community. Their purpose is to enhance the quality of life for the youth in the communities they serve (PoCoMo / Tricities) who are marginalized, isolated, hanging out on the streets, homeless or at risk of homelessness.  We achieve this by building relationships with youth, enhancing their connection with community, strengthen their relationship with their family by bringing services to them. Access has an Art Journalling Group where each week is themed with a topic of conversation like, finding your spirit animal, consent, boundaries, what do healthy relationships look like, and many other important lifespace topics of conversation for our youth to explore. Each topic of conversation is paired with a corresponding art assignment for their journal. They also teach a new art technique each week to complement the art assignment. 
ACCESS provides all the art supplies including the journal, paints, brushes, pastels, pencils, markers, glitter, rulers, a brand-new headset, and anything else needed so our young artists can be successful in their art journal expressions.  Youth who participate in this program come to them for a variety of reasons. Some youth need the process and experience of journaling, some need the connection to our program facilitators, some youth come to simply fine tune their art skills, while others are bored and value having an engaging space to participate in. 

My Artist's Corner

My Artist's Corner is dedicated to providing a safe and welcoming environment for their members to create, display and sell art, to provide high quality instruction in art techniques and quality art materials and to provide peer-based programming that values the lived experiences of people with mental health challenges to run and inform program delivery. The MAC Membership is open to adults living with mental health issues who reside in Burnaby or New Westminster.

The objectives of My Artist's Corner are to provide a safe and welcoming environment for their members to create, display and sell art, to provide high quality instruction in art techniques and quality art materials, to promote their artists’ work in the community at large, and to provide peer-based programming that values the lived experiences of people with mental health challenges to run and inform program delivery. 

Massy Arts Society

Massy Arts Society is an extension of Patricia Massy’s vision to create a space surrounded by stories, art and opportunities for healing, which Massy Books was catalytic in establishing. As a community-hub dedicated to the practices of Indigenous and over-excluded artists, Massy Arts is informed by its its positionality on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations and the downtown eastside, which is home to immigrant, urban Indigenous and vulnerable residents facing multiple systems of oppression.

Massy Arts hopes to provide a welcoming, supportive, and safe community that professionally engages with artists and guests who attend our exhibits, workshops and events. In doing so, they invite artists and guests to be in a reciprocal relationship with the community hub including their staff. 

Covenant House Vancouver

Youth need a space that is psychologically, emotionally, and physically safe to feel like they belong. At Covenant House Vancouver, we're more than just a shelter or transitional housing. We offer a person-centered approach to addressing the needs of young people whose overlapping mental health, substance use, trauma, medical health, and other challenges require coordinated and specialized support. Every young person that comes to Covenant House Vancouver has unique needs. We work to meet all of their needs using a holistic approach that includes safe spaces for physical exercise, spaces for yoga and meditation, art therapy, counselling and medical health support. You can learn more about how we support whole-person health and wellness below.

Garth Homer Art Works

ArtWorks is a unique visual arts program that serves adults in the Greater Victoria area who have developmental disabilities. The program mentors Garth Homer Society clients who have a passion for making art to develop their talents and showcase their work in the community.
Through professional visual arts instruction and a supported studio environment, ArtWorks participants can develop their artistic skills and create a body of work. ArtWorks Coordinator Bonnie Laird, a practicing professional artist, assists Garth Homer Society clients to develop their creative style and realize their dreams of becoming professional artists.

Artists work in group settings where friendships form and ideas are shared through art discussions, visits to galleries and collaborations with community groups and professional artists. The program also creates opportunities for participants to be recognized as artists through solo and group exhibitions at local, national and international levels.

Artemis Place Society

Traditionally, our students have been young women and young moms although gender non-conforming students have attended as long as the program has operated.  As a component of our organizational development, the Society engaged in a productive process around trans inclusion and formally welcomed trans youth into our program in the 2015-2016 year. Artemis Place Society operates Artemis Place Secondary School and Artemis Young Parent Program which includes an on-site Child Care Centre.  The Secondary School integrates education, counselling and life-skills in a nurturing alternative school setting.  Artemis Place is for young women, and/or young women who are pregnant or parenting and all trans youth who have resisted conventional programs and require an intentional community to find support and success.

North Shore Neighbourhood House

The North Shore Neighbourhood House has provided an educational hub for North Vancouver's most vulnerable populations. They bring people together through art, crafts, community events, gardening, and so much more. 

The North Shore Neighbourhood House was founded by Lonsdale residents aiming to create an accessible gathering place for local youth, expanding on the informal “neighbourhood house” at Hugh and Rose Beattie’s where local kids regularly gathered for activities like building model planes, dancing, sewing and more. They’ve seen many changes over the years but continue to aim to provide programs and services to meet the needs of children and families, youth and seniors in Lower Lonsdale and at program sites throughout the North Shore.

Tsleil-Waututh Nation siʔáḿθɘt School

Tsleil-Waututh Nation siʔáḿθɘt (“si-om-thet”) School’s mission is to provide a culturally appropriate learning environment that nurtures the well-being of students, families and the community as a whole. We aim for our school community to become rich in teachings. Our program is anchored in the TWN laws of truth, family, culture and well-being. Land-based learning is practiced regularly with our classes spending considerable time doing outdoor experiential education (OEE) in their traditional territories.

Following best practices, our school has a strong focus on experiential learning. We aim to spark interests in all of our students and find their talents and gifts.  Our community partnerships allow for unique opportunities for learning, weaving together nature and respect in a cohesive manner and by providing space for conscious learning and hands-on experiential insights. 

UNYA (Urban Native Youth Association)

We're nominating the Urban Native Youth Association, and their Overly Creative Minds programme, for their work in providing local indigenous youth access to & experience in the arts. As a team of settlers, it's important for us to be supporting an indigenous organisation with our donation. We also want to support young people in Vancouver in their creative practices; our nomination of UNYA allows us to do both. 

UNYA's focus since its inception in 1988 has been to provide meaningful opportunities for Indigenous youth (Aboriginal, Metis, Inuit, First Nations, Status, Non-Status) in the urban setting. Their goal is to be a safe place for Indigenous youth to come and find out about programs and services at UNYA and in the broader community. UNYA strives to support Indigenous youth by providing a diverse continuum of advocacy, preventative and support services that respond to their immediate and long-term needs. Today, UNYA delivers 20+ programs, with 175+ volunteers, 100 staff, and more than 300 community partners.

Carnegie Community Centre

As the Opus location which most directly serves the Downtown Eastside, we want to be putting our donation back into the neighbourhood. The Carnegie Community Centre is one of the keystones of the DTES, and the money we raise will help provide supplies for their arts programming. 

The Carnegie Community Centre has plenty of programs to choose from, whether you're into art, music, theatre, dance, writing, and more. View their program guide to find out when programs take place.

The Bridge Youth and Family Services

At The Bridge Youth and Family Services, they embrace the Okanagan community with two distinct arms of service. Since inception, they have focused on community and families by working preventatively with new parents and their infants, counselling families who are struggling with their role, and working on behalf of the Ministry of Children and Family Development with young people in our community who are the most marginalized, street entrenched and disenfranchised. The other arm of their service includes recovery and addictions programs.

They provide, among many programs, art nights that encourage self-expression and healing through art.  

Canadian Mental Health Association

We all have mental health. That’s why the folks at CMHA Kelowna are committed to supporting families and individuals through programs that promote positive mental health, support recovery, and empower everyone, no matter how young or how old, to live their best lives.

Opus Kelowna has partnered with this association before, as they are doing incredible work in increasing mental health access to those most vulnerable, and they use art programs to help people find joy, self-expression, and mental well-being. 

Stalew Arts and Culture Society

stɑl̓əw̓ Arts and Cultural Society is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to empowering Indigenous artists to share their gifts. The society's focus is to foster nationhood and to support the rebuilding of Indigenous communities, particularly through the development of opportunities in the arts, culture and language. This is achieved through training, mentorships and apprenticeships, workshops, culture and heritage projects, gatherings, traditional ceremonial offerings, sharing Elder’s knowledge, access to equipment and venues, and language teaching/use. We support local artists to help revitalize Indigenous culture in our communities and beyond. Our ultimate goals are to improve the social, cultural and economic wellbeing and prosperity of local Indigenous people and to develop healthier, more sustainable Indigenous communities.

stɑl̓əw̓ Arts and Cultural Society develops opportunities for artists of all Indigenous cultural practices to grow and share their skills, engage with and learn from other Indigenous artists and community members, and promote their work within the community and beyond.

Arts Umbrella - Surrey Centre

Arts Umbrella is where young artists ages 2–22 cultivate their creativity in Art & Design, Dance, and Theatre, Music & Film. As a non-profit centre for arts education, we believe that art is powerful. Powerful enough to change childrens’ lives in incredible ways. When young people connect with the arts, they gain self-confidence, develop self-discipline, and discover creative expression—qualities they carry with them for life.

Arts Umbrella has four locations in Vancouver and Surrey, as well as donor-funded programs at schools, community centres, neighbourhood houses, and healthcare facilities across Metro Vancouver. We reach more than 24,000 students every year, with nearly 80% participating at little to no cost.