Community Fund
Raise-an-Artist in Your Community: Creative Identity
K'ómoks First Nation 2026
This March, we are delighted to bring our Creative Identity Program to youth in K’ómoks!
Raise-an-Artist in Your Community: Creative Identity works nationally and internationally. Instructors travel to facilitate workshops in photovoice, film, visual art and zines. This initiative fosters passion-based arts projects with a trauma-informed approach, empowering participants to tell their stories and connect with their culture and community. We work with 2SLGBTQIA+ youth, people with disabilities, kids placed at-risk, people experiencing homelessness, people with dementia and Indigenous communities.
We are raising funds to bring this program to as many communities as possible. If you are able to help, please make a donation. Every contribution—no matter the size—makes this work possible.
Past Fundraisers
attawapiskat:
Thermal protection
In 2025 The Raise-an-Artist Project partnered with Dalton Associates and Youth Coordinators in Attawapiskat to bring Raise-an-Artist in Your Community: Creative Identity to youth ages 12-18 .
Attawapiskat First Nation is a small Mushkegowuk community located on James Bay in Northern Ontario. Home to 1900 people and 450 dogs facing much crisis, including suicide, clean drinking water, missing persons and housing.
Prior to program start we launched a fundraiser to bring thermal gear to youth in Atta. Thanks to the generous donations of The Raise-an-Artist Project Arts Community, program participants and their families received thermal pants, shirts, mitts, socks, coats, snow pants and fleeces.
Our instructors led trauma-informed arts workshops in photography, creative writing, film, visual art and zines. We were fortunate enough to work in Youth Haven - their brand new, beautiful recreational centre. We made amazing connections with the youth: the trust we were shown was inspiring.
At the end of the week our workshops culminated in an art show and film screening. Participants experienced the joy of sharing their work with the community, taking pride in other's appreciation and building confidence. In the evenings Barry, one of our instructors, organized pick-up hockey skills and scrimmage.
HAITI:
Donate to educate
In 2012 The Raise-an-Artist Project partnered with Dr.Carmen Logie, M.S.W., Ph.D. to provide photovoice workshops for youth in Haiti. Before arrival, we established Donate to Educate, an education fund for girls and youth who were devastated by the earthquake. While working in Haiti she saw first-hand the circumstances that these youth face daily. In an effort to make real change, we decided to sponsor a young woman who lived in a tent with her mother and her eight siblings. These bright and deserving young women had to drop out of school as they could not afford the school fees. School offers safety and security as well as daily meals. Without school the girls were at risk of falling victim to sexual violence and each day they had to choose between them who ate and who went hungry. We believed that the best way to help was to offer education; that education can really change young people’s lives, particularly those of young Haitian women. Donate to Educate raised $3,900 - enough funds to send five girls through to graduation including uniforms, books and meals. We were very grateful for the opportunity to be involved in empowering these young women by initiating change first-hand and privileged to represent our collective goal.
Carmen is a professor, social scientist and social worker. She has published over 300 research articles, is co-chair of the Annual Canadian Conference on HIV/AIDS research and has been awarded over $10 million in grants with research in HIV/STI prevention, testing and care cascades for people living with HIV, refugees and other displaced youth, LGBTQIA+ communities, Indigenous youth, sex workers, and persons at the intersection of these identities.
In 2013, after trying to adopt for 3 years through the Children's Aid Society, Jenny went into a fertility clinic to do IUI and from initial bloodwork was diagnosed with CML. The next month involved a bone marrow biopsy, IVF, x-rays, ultrasounds, daily bloodwork, an egg retrieval and chemo. In November 2014 we launched Go Rocco to help Jenny become a Mum, find her surrogate and to raise awareness about Cancer and Fertility. An Indiegogo Campaign that brought together a community of artists, educators and health practitioners passionately working toward the goal, continued into 2015 and 2016 with Go Fund Me, an online gallery and many art shows and festivals. Together we sold a lot of art and raised a lot of awareness about Cancer, Parenting, Fertility and Oncofertility. Jenny had the honour of being interviewed on CTV's Canada AM, The Motts Radio Show and was a guest speaker at Fertile Future's An Evening of Hope. Canadian Fertility Consultants and Flowerday Law stood up to generously donate their services. Together we raised $60,000 total. What a success!
Once Go Rocco met its initial goal in 2016, Jenny continued to help others with Cancer make families through the sale of her art and arts education services. Proceeds were donated to the Fertile Future Power of Hope Program. This is a remarkable non-profit organization that aspires to ensure every young Canadian diagnosed with Cancer will have the opportunity and means to have a child. Their mission is to inform, educate and support Cancer patients who are facing fertility-risking medical treatment. Oncofertility is a growing field, bridging oncology and reproductive endocrinology to increase the reproductive potential in cancer patients and survivors. The more the discussion is opened up, the more people will benefit by preserving their fertility once diagnosed with Cancer.
This story is remarkable because Jenny's friends, students, family and clients - the Go Rocco community - believed in her ability as an educator and mentor and stood up to help her fight to become a Mum. In doing so, they demonstrated their faith in hers and Rocco's ability to not only survive, but to thrive. More odds were beaten in finding a remarkable surrogate and Rocco was born in 2017. This long shot, underdog fighter had a 20% chance of survival. He was born because so many people fought with love to make this miracle happen.
Something Jenny has learned from all of this -adoption, cancer, IVF, fundraising, surrogacy and parenthood, is to: prepare as if all you wish for is on the way, assemble a kickass team, work really really hard, and wield the power of positivity- be brave - be proud - be grateful.
Today Jenny + Rocco still support Fertile Future Power of Hope Program to help strong cancer survivors become strong parents.