Inspire Community Outreach received $6,000 in funding from the Bell Let’s Talk Community Fund for our Get Your Art On! Program. Our Executive Director and Founder, Angela Taylor, spoke with CTV News about the funding and the impact on the Get Your Art On! Program.
View Broadcast
Inspire Community Outreach is pleased to receive a $6,000 grant from the Bell Let’s Talk Community Fund to support youth facing or at-risk of developing mental health challenges through the Get Your Art On! program.
Inspire works with youth to build their skills and confidence through a variety of programs including therapeutic self expression, cooking and physical activity. With Bell Let’s Talk funding, the organization will offer 8 creative expression classes to youth facing or at-risk for developing mental health challenges. They will work with children and teens who participate in programs through Boys and Girls Clubs of Winnipeg, VOICES Manitoba Youth in Care, the Winnipeg School Division and Mood Disorders Association of Manitoba.
“Our goal is to support youth and families to be their best self, to feel empowered, recognize their own strengths, resources, and potential,” says Angela Taylor, Executive Director and Founder of Inspire Community Outreach. “With the Bell Let’s Talk Community Fund grant, the Let’s Get Our Art On! program will run in 3 separate areas of the community, providing training and supporting self-expression and positive coping skills throughout our city. We are so fortunate to work alongside our amazing community members, providing inclusive and adaptable supports, where they are needed.”
The workshops will be supportive of and accessible to children of varying artistic and neurological abilities, and will work to reduce the stigma of being ‘different’. Priority goals will be helping children to build a sense of competence, a sense of usefulness, and a sense of belonging through art programming that integrates mindfulness practice, music, and movement with creative expression.
Inspire offers specialized programs for children and youth of all abilities aged 3-12, and 13 and up. Programming varies from one session, drop-in, to weekly programming. We use a strengths-based approach in teaching skill building and positive mental health coping strategies. They also offer caregiver and family empowerment programs which are Family-centered support for families of every shape, size and variability. Power and resource sharing to help families feel empowered.
“Bell Let’s Talk is proud to support Inspire Community Outreach in its outreach work to improve the lives of young people in Winnipeg living with or at-risk of mental health issues,” said Mary Deacon, Chair of Bell Let’s Talk. “Inspire Community Outreach is one of 7 groups helping Manitobans living with a mental illness and their families receiving grants from the 2016 Bell Let’s Talk Community Fund.”
Bell Let’s Talk
The Bell Let’s Talk initiative promotes Canadian mental health with national awareness and anti-stigma campaigns and significant Bell funding of community care and access, research, and workplace initiatives. Bell Let’s Talk Day is January 25, when Bell will donate 5 cents to Canadian mental health programs for every text message, mobile and long distance call made by Bell customers, tweet and Instagram post using #BellLetsTalk, view of the Bell Let’s Talk Day video on Facebook, and use of the Bell Let’s Talk Snapchat geofilter. To learn more, please visit Bell.ca/LetsTalk.
Inspire was founded in October 2013, with the hopes to support our community in ways that were not yet being addressed by other services. From a professional and personal experience, the social service and mental health systems were not only difficult to navigate and preventative programs were scarce.
