The Human-Kind-ness Campaign humanizes six leading social issues across the city, through the lens of photographer Leah den Bok.
Toronto, Ont. – WoodGreen Community Services is partnering with Canadian photographer Leah den Bok for The Human-Kind-ness Campaign, an initiative that brings focus to Toronto’s most vulnerable, aimed at raising awareness and funds for essential community services. The digital campaign, which launched today across WoodGreen’s digital channels, is anchored by Leah den Bok’s powerful and provocative portraits.
The Human-Kind-ness Campaign aims to highlight six of the city’s most staggering social issues while humanizing those in the community who are most affected by them. Leah’s powerful images evoke emotion as she attempts to exhibit the social crisis through her provocative photography.
“Leah’s portraits help to humanize the people and issues we walk by every day,” said Anne Babcock, President & CEO, WoodGreen Community Services. “By partnering with WoodGreen, Leah is lending her lens to help us visualize the human side of the topics we hear about but rarely see. WoodGreen offers innovative and integrated approaches that support many of our city’s greatest unmet needs - these portraits will encourage people to look at the realities within Toronto, and consider supporting WoodGreen’s work in providing sustainable solutions to some of the city’s biggest challenges.”
The campaign focuses on six top chronic social issues in Toronto:
- Housing
- Mental health
- Marginalized youth
- Unemployment
- Newcomer settlement
- Vulnerable seniors
“Change requires a disruptive mindset, innovative thinking and a philosophy driven by creativity, and that’s why this partnership with WoodGreen is so important to me,” said Leah den Bok, 21-year-old Canadian photographer and author. “I have met the people displaced and disheartened, my hope is through my photography I can help humanize the issues in our city, and help WoodGreen continue to offer sustainable and effective services for the most vulnerable.”
Every donation contributes to The Human-Kind-ness Campaign and supports WoodGreen’s efforts to address the city’s chronic issues by providing tangible hope for Toronto residents that need it most.
The Human-Kind-ness Campaign is anchored on WoodGreen’s Instagram page and amplified across all of the organization’s social channels. To learn more about the initiative and donate, visit https://www.woodgreen.org/humankindness.
As a frontline agency, WoodGreen strives to disrupt conventional approaches to Toronto’s chronic unmet needs to find real, sustainable solutions. For more than 80 years, WoodGreen has been meeting people where they are in life, no matter what challenges they have faced or are facing and provides care, support and empowerment for those in the city that need it most.
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ABOUT WOODGREEN COMMUNITY SERVICES (woodgreen.org): WoodGreen is one of the largest social service agencies in Toronto, serving 37,000 people each year. We offer over 75 programs and services tackling the social determinants that affect the health and well-being of individuals in our community.
ABOUT LEAH DEN BOK (humanizingthehomeless.org): Leah den Bok is a Fashion, Beauty and Portrait Photographer who spent the past six years traveling to cities throughout the world photographing and speaking with people experiencing homelessness for her project Humanizing The Homeless. The work from this project has been compiled in a book series entitled Nowhere to Call Home--Photographs and Stories of People Experiencing Homelessness, where 100% of the profits from books sales and exhibits go to local homeless shelters. Leah has won several awards, including the IDRF Youth Impact Award 2018, Murray Clerkson Award 2019, SNAP Photo Competition 2020, and the Ascend Rising Star of the Year Award 2020.
For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact: Ali Clarke, Communications Consultant; [email protected]; (647) 218-2761, or Jen Mayville, Marketing & Communications Manager; [email protected]; (437) 226-8091 (cell)