We’ve partnered with our neighbours at SKETCH, a community arts enterprise located in our West Queen West neighbourhood. Their 9,000 square foot Creative Hub immerses diverse young people navigating poverty, living homeless or otherwise on the margins to build leadership and self-sufficiency through visual arts, culinary arts, music recording, dance and performance. SKETCH’S Creative Hub plays a vital role in the ecosystem of social supports that exist to transition youth out of homelessness and away from poverty in our city.

The Drake has committed $20,000 in-kind over a four-year period to the SKETCH 2020 Visionaries Program. This involves the active engagement of a representative from The Drake’s executive team in the SKETCH programs, allowing the team at The Drake to gain a deeper understanding of how SKETCH programs are positioned to make real change in the world while being grounded in community arts.

The objective is to fund the SKETCH Community Artist Program, a year-long paid internship program that allows SKETCH to hire emerging artists experiencing poverty.