The Lawson Foundation

06/11/2026

🌱 From 2024-2025, our Youth Action & the Environment Pilot Fellowship welcomed four new young leaders who shared a common focus: the intersection of environmental action and holistic human health and wellbeing. Today, we share their leadership stories and what we learned along the way.

The second year of the pilot fellowship provided a valuable opportunity to build on initial feedback and evaluation from the first year, support a second class of fellowship recipients, and deepen the lessons we now carry forward in our continued commitment to Youth Climate and Nature Leadership.

Read the full article here: https://lawson.ca/fellowship-retrospective-year-2/

Over 12 months, the purpose of the pilot fellowship was to support recipients, understand their needs and aspirations, and fill a gap in resources directly available to them. This included providing flexible financial support, leadership coaching, mentorship, and wellbeing support to four young environmental leaders.

🧭 Each fellowship recipient undertook a different journey. We encourage you to read their stories and learn about where Abhay, Sabrina, Smiely and Inaam find themselves today:

Abhay Singh Sachal, founder of Break The Divide, a Saskatchewan-based organization working at the intersection of climate education, resilience, and mental health. → https://lawson.ca/fellowship-story-abhay-singh-sachal/

Sabrina Guzman Skotnitsky, a climate justice advocate, artist, and researcher in Victoria, BC, whose initiative Creating Climate Resilience explores how visual artmaking and group dialogue can help people process their emotional responses to climate change. → https://lawson.ca/fellowship-story-sabrina-guzman-skotnitsky/

Smiely Khurana, founder of Climate Wellness Network, a Vancouver-based initiative that creates spaces for people of all ages to connect with their feelings about climate change and with each other. → https://lawson.ca/fellowship-story-smiely-khurana/

Inaam Chattha, founder of Green Mind, an organization focused on making climate knowledge accessible to young audiences through workshops, children's books, and creative resources. → https://lawson.ca/fellowship-story-inaam-chattha/

05/26/2026

🌟 Our rescheduled virtual visit is taking place this Friday, May 29, with Rachel Greening and Dr. Spencer Greening, who will discuss their work engaging youth in seasonal harvesting practices across Nations along the Pacific Northwest Coast.

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 in cultural research and anthropology.

During the 1-hour virtual event, Rachel and Spencer will discuss the Gitga’at Youth Land-Based and Cultural Continuity Diabetes Prevention Approach — grounded in reconnection to land, identity, and cultural practices to support health and well-being in Indigenous communities.

📅 Friday, May 29, 2026 (Rescheduled from May 4 due to connectivity issues)
🕐 1:00 pm EST / 12:00 pm CST / 10:00 am PST

Register on Eventbrite:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/gitgaat-youth-land-based-cultural-continuity-diabetes-prevention-tickets-1987553048672

05/19/2026

A new briefing from Carleton University's Charity Insights Canada Project (CICP PCPOB) reinforces what many in the sector have long experienced: it is not only how much funding charities receive — but also how that funding is designed — that shapes their ability to serve communities well.

Drawing on three years of national survey data from roughly 1,000 Canadian charities, the briefing finds that the sector continues to operate within funding models that do not cover actual costs and are often short-term, restricted, and unpredictable. On average, only 5% of funding is provided as full-cost project funding, and just 6% of charities describe their funding as very predictable and secure.

The briefing makes the case that flexible, multi-year, full-cost funding and investments in organizational capacity are necessary to maintain the public value that charities provide.

These are challenges that the Charitable and Nonprofit Sector Infrastructure Collaborative Fund was created to help address. Launched in December 2025 and supported by a growing group of funders, the Collaborative Fund provides multi-year general operating support to provincial and territorial nonprofit networks across Canada, helping to address the longstanding underfunding of organizations that serve as essential infrastructure for the sector.

Read and share the full briefing on How Funding Design Affects the Impact of Canadian Charities:https://carleton.ca/cicp-pcpob/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2026/04/Briefing-Document-5-EN-1.pdf

05/15/2026

Join us next Thursday (May 21) as we learn how the Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority (SLFNHA) is enhancing diabetes management and prevention at the community level through empowerment, education, and connection.

Our Virtual Visit #16 guest speakers will be Janet Gordon, VP of Community Health at SLFNHA, and Madison Pierce, Manager of the organization's Community Health Worker (CHW) Diabetes Program.

Together, they will share knowledge, stories, and reflections on the journey of developing the CHW Diabetes Program, and highlight strengths and opportunities to improve diabetes care in the Sioux Lookout area.

📅 Thursday, May 21, 2026 (3-4 PM ET / 2-3 PM CT)

🔗 Register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/empowering-community-health-workers-in-diabetes-care-tickets-1988626755157

05/08/2026

📖 Join us Tuesday for a Virtual Visit with Cheryle Dreaver, Anti-Racism Project Lead at the First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba, to learn about the development and delivery of FNHSSM's Indigenous-led Anti-Indigenous Racism (AIR) training program.

🕐 1:00 pm EDT / 12:00 pm CDT / 10:00 am PDT

Register on Eventbrite:

Learn about First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba’s (FNHSSM) Indigenous-led Anti-Indigenous Racism (AIR) training program

05/07/2026

The Lawson Foundation has joined the Waltons Trust in supporting a new $5 million initiative led by Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) to embed outdoor and land-based teaching and learning in early childhood education programs across the country.

Preparing educators to work outdoors and on the land requires change across faculty development, curriculum design, student placements, and engagement with Indigenous communities and Knowledge Keepers.

Building on the Lawson Foundation’s 2024 “More Than a New Course: A Framework for Embedding Outdoor and Land-Based Pedagogies in Post-Secondary Early Childhood Education Programs,” CICan’s initiative will support a coordinated, sector-led system shift that will:

🔹Develop a national micro-credential for ECE faculty and open-access educational resources for all post-secondary ECE programs.

🔹Grow communities of practice to build faculty capacity and connect educators across institutions and regions.

🔹Fund approximately 29 colleges and institutes for local implementation.

🔹Support colleges in building meaningful relationships with Indigenous communities and Knowledge Keepers to guide land-based teaching and learning.

By supporting faculty and administrators to address the complexities of institutional change, this initiative directly benefits both the healthy development of young children and ultimately the quality of programs in the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) initiative.

Read the full announcement from CICan: https://www.collegesinstitutes.ca/news-release/5-million-initiative-to-advance-outdoor-and-land-based-learning-in-early-childhood-education-across-canada/

05/05/2026

Our COO, Amanda, was pleased to join sector leaders, advocates, and policymakers in Ottawa this evening for the Fair Funding for Nonprofits Reception, hosted by Imagine Canada.

Held ahead of tomorrow’s Hill Day, the event underscored the growing momentum behind advancing a more equitable and effective federal funding system for nonprofits — one that better reflects the essential role the sector plays in communities across Canada.

A few themes resonated throughout the evening:
• Nonprofits are essential infrastructure in our communities — and most Canadians are already connected to the sector in meaningful ways
• Accountability matters — and is strongest when it is meaningfully tied to the work organizations are doing, rather than disconnected reporting requirements
• The importance of an enabling policy and regulatory environment — one that supports the sector’s ability to operate effectively, adapt, and continue improving how it serves communities

Learn more about the Fair Funding for Nonprofits Coalition: fair-funding-nonprofits.ca

Pictured: Christine Vallières (Fondation Chamandy), Amanda Mayer Lalonde (Lawson Foundation), Hilary Pearson, CM, Susan Manwaring (Miller Thomson LLP)

05/04/2026

Last week, the Lawson Foundation joined others to celebrate Inspirit Foundation for a decade of their 100% impact investment portfolio — a bold and values-driven commitment that continues to push the sector forward.

Special recognition to Jory Cohen, Director of Finance and Impact Investment, for the leadership and vision behind this work. We are excited to see the continued impact as his next chapter unfolds with Silk Pin Capital, and we are always energized to hear from those who are rethinking how capital can drive meaningful change.

Learn more about the Inspirit Foundation’s 100% impact portfolio: https://inspiritfoundation.org/investing/

Pictured: Cathy Taylor (President & CEO, Lawson Foundation), Jory Cohen (Director of Finance and Impact Investment, Inspirit Foundation), Amanda Mayer (COO & Program Director for Sector Infrastructure & Social Finance, Lawson Foundation)

05/01/2026

Twenty-seven years after Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine established the first Friday in May as NIDAD, the diabetes epidemic he described continues to affect First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities across Turtle Island — shaped by the lasting impacts of colonization on diet, health, and access to care.

The path forward is being led by communities themselves.

Across Canada, Indigenous communities and organizations are taking wholistic, community-based approaches to diabetes prevention and management, grounded in their own knowledge and on their own terms. The Lawson Foundation is proud to support their work through our Child & Youth Diabetes impact area. Learn more: https://lawson.ca/our-work/diabetes/

To continue this important conversation, we invite you to join our three Virtual Visits taking place this month, where we will hear from guests working in Indigenous Communities around health, wellness and anti-racism.

📅 May 4: Gitga’at Youth Land-Based & Cultural Continuity Diabetes Prevention → https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/gitgaat-youth-land-based-cultural-continuity-diabetes-prevention-tickets-1987553048672

📅 May 12: Indigenous-Led Anti-Indigenous Racism (AIR) Training Program → https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/indigenous-led-anti-indigenous-racism-air-training-program-tickets-1987567892069

📅 May 21: Empowering Community Health Workers in Diabetes Care → https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/empowering-community-health-workers-in-diabetes-care-tickets-1988626755157

04/29/2026

Don't miss Monday's Virtual Visit about engaging youth in seasonal harvesting practices across Nations along the Pacific Northwest Coast — grounded in reconnection to land, identity, and cultural practices for health and well-being in Indigenous communities.

Register on Eventbrite to join us on Zoom (May 4, 1-2 pm ET / 10-11 am PT): https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/gitgaat-youth-land-based-cultural-continuity-diabetes-prevention-tickets-1987553048672

Rachel Greening (Ts'msyen, Lax Kw'alaams) and Dr. Spencer Greening (Ts'msyen, Gitga'at) are Indigenous food systems researchers whose work centres on the relationships between land, culture, and health, bringing experience in diet and diabetes education, cultural research, and anthropology.