2025 Chosen Family Campaign Launches!
At Canvas Programs, our work is guided by the stories we hear every day from young people across Ontario. Many of the youth in our programs rely on their chosen family for safety, affirmation, and community. Their strength and love for one another show us how powerful it can be to find the people who truly support and understand you.
This month, we are excited to launch our second annual Chosen Family Campaign. We're celebrating the people who make us feel safe, supported, and loved for who we are. Chosen family is what helps us get through tough times, and Canvas Programs is creating compassion so every young person feels that same sense of belonging.
We’re inviting supporters to gather their chosen family as a team! Whether that looks like a tight circle of friends, colleagues who have become confidants, or loved ones scattered across cities and time zones, we want to honour the relationships that make us feel at home.
This year, the need for that support feels especially urgent. Across Canada, transphobic rhetoric is rising, and those harmful messages are finding their way into classrooms. Young people are hearing public conversations that question their identities, undermine their safety, and make it harder for them to feel seen. For many, school is becoming a space where they feel pressure, isolation, or fear. This growing climate means our work is more vital than ever. For many young people, chosen family is not just a source of belonging, it is a lifeline. Every donation helps us show up for youth as role models, advocates and queer adults who see them, and validate who they are.
We hope you will join us this season by creating a fundraising page with your own chosen family or by contributing to the campaign. Together, we can continue building a world where every young person feels valued, affirmed, and safe to be themselves.