The Lawson Foundation

09/22/2026

This week, the Lawson Foundation will join colleagues and partners at the PFC National Conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on Treaty 1 Territory. We look forward to connecting, listening, and learning together, grounded in the theme of Reciprocity.

The members of our team who will be joining the conference are Cathy Taylor (President & CEO), Amanda Mayer (COO & Director, Sector Infrastructure & Social Finance), Jeff LaPlante (Director, Child & Youth Diabetes), Christine Alden (Director, Early Child Development) and Tristan Oliff (Manager, Communications & Member Engagement), along with Jean-Marc Chouinard (Board Member).

09/21/2026

Abhay Singh Sachal's environmental leadership is grounded in the belief that if we help young people feel heard, less alone, less isolated, connected to community, and empowered to act, they can build the resilient future ahead of us.

With an issue as complex as climate change, we can't avoid difficult conversations. Talking it through with peers builds agency, not just to act on climate change, but to acknowledge your own feelings and emotional wellbeing.

"When we have language to talk about where we're at, we feel less stigma. Sometimes we feel shame about having emotions. I'm here to say, it's okay to feel overwhelmed about the state of the world. It's a sign that we're alive and connected."

Watch the full documentary on YouTube: https://youtu.be/jdx56cAOrQ8

Break The Divide's climate emotion circles are built to hold intentional space for emotions and local experience, connect young people to one another and their communities, and activate them toward action and agency.

🌟 As awareness of climate impacts grows, Abhay sees the work needing to be proactive as well as responsive. Being proactive means that even in the worst climate futures, there is still value in coming together as communities, building places for hope, and giving young people the emotional and community skills to identify what matters to them and keep building a world where that is possible.

🤝 For those who would like to learn more, or funders interested in supporting the next year of Break The Divide's work, visit: https://breakthedivide.net/ or connect with Abhay via email at [email protected]

09/18/2026

🗣️ When young people are empowered to share and discuss their feelings about climate change together, the impacts stretch far beyond the classroom, strengthening emotional wellbeing and building collective resilience that ripples across communities.

Watch this process taking place in our recently released documentary following Abhay Singh Sachal and Break The Divide, a Saskatchewan-based organization working at the intersection of climate education, resilience, and mental health: https://youtu.be/jdx56cAOrQ8

Young people are overwhelmed by information about the realities of climate change, yet they don't have many places to process and discuss how they feel. These emotions are complex and hard to untangle alone; that's what makes the climate emotion circles Break The Divide runs in classrooms across the prairies so powerful.

In 2025, Break The Divide piloted their climate emotion circles in two schools. By mid-2026, that number had grown to a dozen. In each circle, young people are invited to share how climate change makes them feel and hear from their peers, building shared understanding and solidarity, creating collective resilience that flows into community.

In evaluating these climate emotion circles, Break The Divide has seen the depth of concern, despair, and apathy that has surfaced among participating young people, and how impactful the programming has been in helping them process these emotions.

📚 This has inspired Break The Divide to develop the Climate Education and Resilience Program. Launching in late 2026, the program will roll out in 90 schools across Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Manitoba, providing new curriculum and facilitation materials to help educators host circles in their classrooms, covering apathy, extreme weather events, and environmental justice.

Learn more about Break The Divide: https://breakthedivide.net/

Educators interested in bringing Break The Divide to their school can learn more here: https://breakthedivide.net/pcerp/

09/16/2026

As young people across Canada navigate how to process climate anxiety and a changing world, Abhay Singh Sachal is on a mission to help others feel heard, connected to one another and empowered to build resilience for themselves and their communities. This new documentary captures his story.

Watch the newly released documentary: https://youtu.be/jdx56cAOrQ8

Abhay is the founder and executive director of Break The Divide, a Saskatchewan-based nonprofit that supports youth and schools across the prairies by developing resources and creating spaces that help young people navigate their emotions about the climate crisis. He is completing a Master's degree in Educational Psychology at the University of Regina.

🌱 Through climate-emotion circles in schools, community workshops, and facilitated conversations, Break The Divide creates space for young people to share authentically and connect. In the documentary, we follow Abhay’s journey from recognizing and processing his own climate anxiety to now helping young people voice their feelings, build shared understanding among one another, and strengthen collective resilience.

Learn more about Break The Divide: https://breakthedivide.net/

🎥 Directed by Marium Vahed, the documentary was produced as part of the Lawson Foundation's Youth Action and the Environment Pilot Fellowship, which supported four young leaders working at the intersection of environmental action and mental health and wellbeing.

Through the fellowship, Abhay grew Break The Divide from a youth-led project into an organization with a team and programming running in schools across the Prairies. Learn more about the fellowship on our website: https://lawson.ca/fellowship-retrospective-year-2/

Abhay Singh Sachal is the founder of Break The Divide, a Saskatchew...

09/14/2026

Don't miss this Thursday's info session on how organizations can join Imagine Canada's National Public Awareness Campaign to strengthen Canadians' understanding and sense of belonging to the charitable and nonprofit sector.

Launching this fall, the campaign will show Canadians how charities and nonprofits positively impact their everyday lives. The info session will cover how organizations and their staff can use the campaign's toolkit assets to amplify the message.

📅 Thursday, September 17 (1 PM ET | 10 AM PT)

🔗 Register: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/nonprofits-playbook-for-the-national-public-awareness-campaign-tickets-1998495741561

⏰ 1 week left to register! Don't miss this virtual info session on Imagine Canada’s National Public Awareness campaign.

Canadians and their communities are positively impacted by the work of charities and nonprofits every day, often without realizing it. Imagine Canada's upcoming National Public Awareness Campaign, supported by BMO, is a sector-wide effort to change that, and we’re inviting your organization to be a part of it.

Join Bruce MacDonald, President & CEO of Imagine Canada, on Thursday, September 17 at 1 p.m. ET for an overview of the campaign and a look at how your organization can get involved and help build a stronger sense of belonging to the nonprofit sector.

Register for the info session: https://buff.ly/EAo49d9

Learn more about the campaign ahead of the event: https://buff.ly/EDZ6KLS

09/11/2026

🍁 If you are a young Canadian (18-25) looking to grow your leadership and community-building skills, connect with others, and collaborate on ways to contribute to a more sustainable future — apply to Climate75 by September 18!

Climate75 is a six-month program run by The Starfish Canada from January to July 2027 that connects and guides young people across Canada to explore climate and environmental action through workshops, mentorship, hands-on projects, and a multi-day in-person retreat.

🌟 Learn more, share and apply: https://thestarfish.ca/climate75

08/31/2026

🌟 Join this Wednesday's Virtual Visit to dive into how reconnection to land, identity, and cultural practices supports health and well-being in Indigenous communities. https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/gitgaat-youth-land-based-cultural-continuity-diabetes-prevention-tickets-1998431001923?aff=Facebook

On September 2nd, join us to explore how Gitga’at youth are being engaged in seasonal harvesting practices across Nations along the Pacific Northwest Coast—grounded in reconnection to land, identity, and cultural practices that support health and well-being in Indigenous communities.

In ep. 16 of our Virtual Visit series, we will hear from guests Rachel Greening and Dr. Spencer Greening about the Gitga’at Youth Land-Based and Cultural Continuity Diabetes Prevention Approach.

Rachel and Spencer are avid harvesters who continue to follow their seasonal rounds as much as possible. They are deeply committed to understanding how reconnection to land, identity, and cultural practices supports health and well-being in Indigenous communities, including the prevention of type 2 diabetes.

Rachel (Ts’msyen, Lax Kw’alaams) and Spencer (Ts’msyen, Gitga’at) are Indigenous food systems researchers whose work centers on the relationships between land, culture, and health. They bring a wealth of experience in diet and diabetes education, as well as cultural research and anthropology, respectively.

🗓️ Wed, Sep 2, 2026, 1:00-2:00 PM ET / 10:00-11:00 AM PT
🔗 Register for free on Eventbrite to join us live on Zoom: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/gitgaat-youth-land-based-cultural-continuity-diabetes-prevention-tickets-1998431001923?aff=Facebook

08/27/2026

🌾 Don’t miss next week’s Virtual Visit exploring how First Nation youth are engaging in seasonal harvesting practices along the Pacific Northwest Coast — grounded in reconnection to land, identity, and cultural practices for health and well-being in Indigenous communities.

Hosted on Zoom and free to attend, we will hear from guests Rachel (Ts’msyen, Lax Kw’alaams) and Spencer (Ts’msyen, Gitga’at), Indigenous food systems researchers whose work centers on the relationships between land, culture, and health. They bring a wealth of experience in diet and diabetes education, as well as cultural research and anthropology, respectively.

🗓️ Wed, Sep 2, 2026, 1:00-2:00 PM ET / 10:00-11:00 AM PT

🔗 Register on Eventbrite:

Ep.16 of our Virtual Visit series explores Gitga’at Youth Land-Based & Cultural Continuity Diabetes Prevention. Free and open to all.

08/20/2026

On September 2nd, join us to explore how Gitga’at youth are being engaged in seasonal harvesting practices across Nations along the Pacific Northwest Coast—grounded in reconnection to land, identity, and cultural practices that support health and well-being in Indigenous communities.

In ep. 16 of our Virtual Visit series, we will hear from guests Rachel Greening and Dr. Spencer Greening about the Gitga’at Youth Land-Based and Cultural Continuity Diabetes Prevention Approach.

Rachel and Spencer are avid harvesters who continue to follow their seasonal rounds as much as possible. They are deeply committed to understanding how reconnection to land, identity, and cultural practices supports health and well-being in Indigenous communities, including the prevention of type 2 diabetes.

Rachel (Ts’msyen, Lax Kw’alaams) and Spencer (Ts’msyen, Gitga’at) are Indigenous food systems researchers whose work centers on the relationships between land, culture, and health. They bring a wealth of experience in diet and diabetes education, as well as cultural research and anthropology, respectively.

🗓️ Wed, Sep 2, 2026, 1:00-2:00 PM ET / 10:00-11:00 AM PT
🔗 Register for free on Eventbrite to join us live on Zoom: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/gitgaat-youth-land-based-cultural-continuity-diabetes-prevention-tickets-1998431001923?aff=Facebook

08/17/2026

🌟 National Nonprofit Day is a time to celebrate all the incredible nonprofits and charities that serve our communities — and the staff, volunteers and boards who make their impact possible. Today, we spotlight the critical role of Canada’s Provincial and Territorial Nonprofit Networks in strengthening the broader sector.

Provincial and Territorial Nonprofit Networks serve as comprehensive resource hubs for organizations across all subsectors. They promote high standards of practice within the sector, conduct vital “state of the sector” research, advance education through capacity-building and professional development, advocate to governments on sector-wide issues, and offer collective solutions that individual organizations often cannot access on their own.

Despite their impact, these intermediary networks face persistent underfunding, which forces them to spend significant time securing operational funding from different sources and reduces their capacity to support thousands of organizations working in communities across Canada amid growing uncertainty in the sector.

🤝 In 2025, the Charitable and Nonprofit Sector Infrastructure Collaborative Fund was launched to help address this gap, including by providing multi-year general operating support to the following Provincial and Territorial Nonprofit Networks working across the country:

Alberta: Alberta Nonprofit Network - ABNN / The Nonprofit Chamber
British Columbia: Vantage Point
Manitoba: Manitoba Network of Networks
New Brunswick: New Brunswick Nonprofit Network
Newfoundland & Labrador: Community Sector Council Newfoundland and Labrador
Nova Scotia: Impact Organizations of Nova Scotia
Nunavut: Nunavut Association of Non-Profit Organizations
Ontario: Ontario Nonprofit Network
Prince Edward Island: Community Sector Network of PEI
Saskatchewan: Saskatchewan Nonprofit Partnership
Yukon: The Yukon NGO Hub Society

The Collaborative Fund reflects the belief that when intermediary networks are well-resourced, the benefits ripple across the charitable and nonprofit sector, made possible by a growing group of funders, including Benefaction Foundation, Catherine Donnelly Foundation, The Counselling Foundation of Canada, Definity Foundation, Laidlaw Foundation, Lawson Foundation, Meta Foundation, McConnell Foundation, RBC Foundation, Sonor Foundation and Tiny Foundation. Additional funders who share this belief are welcome to join.

Learn more about Collaborative Fund and the essential role of Provincial and Territorial Nonprofit Networks ↓
https://lawson.ca/announcing-the-charitable-and-nonprofit-sector-infrastructure-collaborative-fund/