A new relief initiative is helping some B.C. children who were displaced by a devastating fire this past summer.
On June 30, a massive wildfire spread rapidly through the small village of Lytton, virtually destroying the entire community and displacing hundreds of residents.
Vancouver-based investment firm Odlum Brown has partnered with national nonprofit DAREarts to provide 200 creativity kits to kids from Lytton.
"In this situation, as a result of the fires, there's a lot of trauma that goes around those things and I think the arts, in particular, are a way of channelling some of that trauma in a more positive way and allow people to be creative in a time when creativity is often the last thing on the list," says Odlum Brown president Debra Doucette (Hewson).
The curated boxes are designed to support youth in caring for their mental health with arts-based expression. The kits include 10 weeks' worth of art activities and supplies.
"[These children] need an outlet, especially a creative one, to express some of the frustrations and the feelings and the emotions that they're dealing with. These kits seemed like the perfect place to be able to step in and help with that," explains DAREarts president Jennifer Wilson.
DAREarts provides leadership development opportunities, through educational arts, to children in underserved communities across Canada.
The creativity kits will be shipped out in the coming weeks.
