The Walk to Fight Arthritis is The Arthritis Society’s marquee fund-raising event.  The Walk unites those who wish to raise awareness and funds for research to end the pain of arthritis in communities across the country,  and improve the lives of those living with arthritis.

The Arthritis Society in Toronto does the Walk to Fight Arthritis every year, and Chris has been there for years now helping out as a team leader, route marshal, and anything else they might need.

Yellow Brick House is about empowering women and children to rebuild their lives giving a voice to the untold stories of violence in our community, raising awareness about the need for change, and moving our community forward to end of violence against women and kids.

Chris James is very passionate about ending violence against women, and doing what he can to assist anyone that needs help rebuilding their lives. Whether it's making deliveries, sorting through donations, or organizing fund-raisers to help fund Yellow Brick House and its initiatives.

The Boys and Girls Club of West Scarborough is a leading provider of programs and services that have supported the healthy physical, emotional, educational and social development of over 5,600 children and youth since 1956. The Club, through, its main site and satellite locations, provide safe, secure, and fun environments where youth experience new opportunities, overcome barriers, build positive relationships, and develop skills and confidence for life.

Chris James has been working with the youth council. He has been able to mentor teens and broaden their horizons for the future. Whether it was training them in some self-defence, helping them look ahead to the future with his career projects, or helping them become more community minded with their various charity and volunteer field trips, the teens he has worked with are able to look towards the future in a new light.

"Space 2 Create" is a non profit summer day camp for the youth of Harbour Island one of the Islands of the Bahamas.

It is a comprehensive youth development program, where through the process of working together, children and youth learn about life and about themselves.

Through this summer enrichment program, where through the process of working together on artistic, academic and community projects, children and youth are empowered as leaders, critical and creative thinkers and courageous compassionate individuals. We further envision the development of performing arts and community theatre on Harbour Island to its full potential and seek to promote awareness amongst young people of the cultural and ecological heritage of the island.

A few years ago, Chris and some like minded volunteers decided to start teaching self defense to those that needed it most. They engaged several shelters including North York Women's Shelter, Ernistine's, 360 Kids/Pathways, and others, and started offering free self defense seminars.

Self defense has not only been a team building experience for the clients involved, but has also been instrumental in rebuilding self confidence.

After we started teaching self defense for restorative purposes in the shelters, we decided to take a more proactive approach and started teaching free women's self defense at various locations around Toronto. For Chris and his volunteers, it feels incredibly rewarding to be teaching the skills and psychology of self defense.

To find out when the next free women's self defense day is, click the picture and come on out to learn some easy and fun self defense.

News of our free women's self defense seminars got out, and soon after, we developed a workshop at the amazing 519 Community Centre in Toronto. This workshop serves as a LGBTQ+ community focused self defense workshop, and is inclusive to all.

To find out when the next inclusive self defense day is, click the picture and come on out to learn some easy and fun self defense.

To find out more about the 519 Centre and the amazing other workshops,  services, and counseling  they provide, please feel free to check out their website for more info.

www.the519.org