Stand Firm Initiative
This initiative supports culturally diverse organizations that are receiving Capacity Building Grants for Culturally Diverse Arts Organizations. It provides tools, shares good practices and enables peer-to-peer learning, professional development and networking. The aim is to assist grant recipients to make the best use of the grant funds.
Stand Firm Network
All recipients of funding under the Capacity Building Grants for Culturally Diverse Arts Organizations are invited to join this network. It is managed by the Equity Office through regional facilitators who operate out of Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, but serve all clients across the country.
Facilitators:
Deborah Forde
Montreal/Eastern Canada
Deborah Forde, a native Montrealer and a social counsellor by trade, has spent 20 years in community development, in great part with the personal mission of, helping “at-risk” youth to discover and express their own voice. A such, she has worked in and with the communities of Park Extension, Little Burgundy, Verdun, and NDG. In 1999 her work led her to the practice Community Arts and she begun using studio and performance art as a tool for the personal/professional development for youth, as well as social justice and community conscious raising. This led to her current pursuit of a BA in Fine Arts with a specialization in Theatre and Development. Deborah has also begun to develop her own personal practice in writing and directing for theatre, having most recently directed Terminal Terminal at the MAI, and assistant directing Michel et Ti Jean at the Centaur.
Helen Yung
Toronto/Central Canada
Helen Yung divides her time between consulting for cultural start-ups and trying to find time to pursue a multidisciplinary arts practice. She is the community engagement manager for Culture Days, a pan-Canadian arts participation movement. She is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Cultural Pluralism in the Performing Arts Movement Ontario, and the Advisory Council for the Ontario Nonprofit Network. Previous engagements include development consultant for Pixel Gallery, national coordinator for the Canadian Arts Coalition, programs and services coordinator for the Canadian Dance Assembly, and general manager for the Little Pear Garden Collective. Current artistic projects include a commission for a network art piece for 2011, explorations in scenographic-centred storytelling, good-natured attempts at making music, and a book of creative nonfiction.
Anita Agrawal
Toronto/Central Canada
Anita Agrawal is a mixed media artist, an independent researcher and consultant. She has worked with many non-profit organizations including the Council of Canadians and the United Way. In addition to her work, she has volunteered her time on the boards of many organizations including the South Asian Visual Arts Centre of which she served as the board president for 4 years. Anita is fluent in Hindi and is passionate about social justice and equity issues.
Vanessa Richards
Vancouver/Western Canada
Vanessa Richards is an interdisciplinary artist and facilitator with a foundation in writing, music, live art, theatre and collaboration. Her interests include participatory process, leading-edge practices in community-based arts and the role of the arts and artists in urban regeneration.
Born in Vancouver, she lived in London, England from 1992 to 2004. There she was founder and artistic director of performing arts company Mannafest, which toured premier clubs, concert halls and galleries including The Jazz Café, Tate Modern and South Bank Centre. She also designed and delivered socially-engaged projects with and for the UK Design Council, the Live Art Development Agency, London Education Authority and HRH Queen Elizabeth II.
Since June 2009, she has been the director of Community Engagement through the Arts at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. Previous to this she had also worked with and for Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver International Writers Festival, Hollyhock Leadership Institute and as Artist-in-Residence at Public Dreams Society in 2005-2006. Richards was nominated for a Jessie Richardson Theatre Award in 2007 and in 2008 appeared in The Violet Hour by Richard Greenberg at the Belfry Theatre, Victoria.
She sings in a quartet called Radiant Sound. They make spare and luminous interpretations of mid-century and modern song. She is an active member of the Robson Park Community Garden and Chair of the Working Arts Society who present the annual Sistahood Celebration. She earned an MPhil in Creative Writing from Cardiff University, UK. Her poetry and critical works are anthologized in the UK, Holland, United States and Canada. Her most current work can be found online at http://vanessarichards.wordpress.com/