Creating Resilience: Emotional Wellbeing Tools for Calgary's Creative Community
Homegrown Arts & Media Collective
Details
Southern Alberta
The Idea
One in three Calgarians report their mental health as fair or poor (City of Calgary, 2025). For artists, the risk runs higher. Before the pandemic, Canada's arts and entertainment sector had the highest rates of diagnosed anxiety and depression of any sector (Mental Health Research Canada, 2021). Many creatives work independently, without an employer or benefits to fall back on. Supports exist, but they are hard to find when you don't know what to look for, and harder when you are burnt out or in crisis.
Creating Resilience is a one-year pilot that brings free emotional wellbeing support to working artists in Calgary. It is led by Homegrown's Registered Social Worker (RSW), who is trained in trauma-informed practice and crisis response.
The project runs January to December 2027 in four phases.
Co-design (Jan to March): We meet with artists and staff at our partner organizations to learn what support they need. Artists register for low-to-no-cost Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) certification courses. Our Indigenous advisors review our approach.
Pilot (April to Aug): We deliver 5 free Resilience Workshops for 50 artists, built for the realities of creative work like irregular hours, unstable income, rejection and public-facing careers. Our RSW trains 10 partner staff and volunteers to recognize distress and connect people to help. From April to Sept, we run 60 Community Hours (10 per month), where artists meet our RSW one-on-one for free help finding counselling, housing, food security and health care supports.
Refine (Sept to Nov): Artists and partners test a wellbeing toolkit and a Calgary support map of culturally safe mental health resources. We revise both based on their feedback.
Share (Dec): We release both free at wearehomegrown.ca and present a public learning report.
Sessions are hosted by the National accessArts Centre, CSIF and EMMEDIA, with online sessions through the Alberta Media Arts Alliance Society (AMAAS).
Field Law's support goes directly to artists. It subsidizes the cost for 30 artists to earn MHFA or ASIST certification. It makes our sessions accessible by funding ASL and language interpretation, along with Elder honoraria and traditional medicines when protocol calls for them. It also provides workshop materials and prints the first edition of the wellbeing toolkit and support map.
Creating Resilience is a one-year pilot that brings free emotional wellbeing support to working artists in Calgary. It is led by Homegrown's Registered Social Worker (RSW), who is trained in trauma-informed practice and crisis response.
The project runs January to December 2027 in four phases.
Co-design (Jan to March): We meet with artists and staff at our partner organizations to learn what support they need. Artists register for low-to-no-cost Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) certification courses. Our Indigenous advisors review our approach.
Pilot (April to Aug): We deliver 5 free Resilience Workshops for 50 artists, built for the realities of creative work like irregular hours, unstable income, rejection and public-facing careers. Our RSW trains 10 partner staff and volunteers to recognize distress and connect people to help. From April to Sept, we run 60 Community Hours (10 per month), where artists meet our RSW one-on-one for free help finding counselling, housing, food security and health care supports.
Refine (Sept to Nov): Artists and partners test a wellbeing toolkit and a Calgary support map of culturally safe mental health resources. We revise both based on their feedback.
Share (Dec): We release both free at wearehomegrown.ca and present a public learning report.
Sessions are hosted by the National accessArts Centre, CSIF and EMMEDIA, with online sessions through the Alberta Media Arts Alliance Society (AMAAS).
Field Law's support goes directly to artists. It subsidizes the cost for 30 artists to earn MHFA or ASIST certification. It makes our sessions accessible by funding ASL and language interpretation, along with Elder honoraria and traditional medicines when protocol calls for them. It also provides workshop materials and prints the first edition of the wellbeing toolkit and support map.
Who Will Benefit?
Our program will benefit working artists and creatives in Southern Alberta's arts and culture sector through online sessions and support resources. Calgary's creative sector employed more than 18,100 people before the pandemic, and that workforce recovered by 2022 and is projected to keep growing (Conference Board of Canada, 2024).
Many artists we work with are self-employed, with no employer or benefits plan to lean on. Our existing flagship mentorship program grew out of a community needs assessment of about 40 emerging Calgary artists, and many reported serious income insecurity.
Arts and culture also drive the local economy. Calgary's creative sector supported $2.7 billion in local GDP and 24,300 jobs in 2019, counting its ripple through other businesses (Conference Board of Canada, 2024). Healthy artists keep it running.
Creating Resilience is built for:
Emerging and underrepresented artists: Homegrown was founded to serve storytellers who are often shut out of the creative industries. Our leadership comes from that community.
Artists ready to support their peers: 30 artists earn MHFA or ASIST certification, with costs covered by Field Law, so they can recognize a crisis and connect a colleague to help.
Artists with disabilities: The National accessArts Centre, which works with artists with disabilities, hosts sessions in its accessible space.
Deaf and newcomer artists: ASL and language interpretation, funded by Field Law, mean language is never the reason someone misses out.
Indigenous artists: Our work is guided by Mount Royal University's Iniskim Centre and the National Indigenous Media Arts Coalition (NIMAC). Elders guide selected workshops and receive honoraria and protocol gifts, including traditional medicines.
Film and media artists: CSIF and EMMEDIA host Community Hours where independent filmmakers and media artists already work.
Arts organizations: 10 staff and volunteers at our partner organizations will be trained to recognize distress and connect people to help. These are often the first people an artist talks to when things go wrong.
Many artists we work with are self-employed, with no employer or benefits plan to lean on. Our existing flagship mentorship program grew out of a community needs assessment of about 40 emerging Calgary artists, and many reported serious income insecurity.
Arts and culture also drive the local economy. Calgary's creative sector supported $2.7 billion in local GDP and 24,300 jobs in 2019, counting its ripple through other businesses (Conference Board of Canada, 2024). Healthy artists keep it running.
Creating Resilience is built for:
Emerging and underrepresented artists: Homegrown was founded to serve storytellers who are often shut out of the creative industries. Our leadership comes from that community.
Artists ready to support their peers: 30 artists earn MHFA or ASIST certification, with costs covered by Field Law, so they can recognize a crisis and connect a colleague to help.
Artists with disabilities: The National accessArts Centre, which works with artists with disabilities, hosts sessions in its accessible space.
Deaf and newcomer artists: ASL and language interpretation, funded by Field Law, mean language is never the reason someone misses out.
Indigenous artists: Our work is guided by Mount Royal University's Iniskim Centre and the National Indigenous Media Arts Coalition (NIMAC). Elders guide selected workshops and receive honoraria and protocol gifts, including traditional medicines.
Film and media artists: CSIF and EMMEDIA host Community Hours where independent filmmakers and media artists already work.
Arts organizations: 10 staff and volunteers at our partner organizations will be trained to recognize distress and connect people to help. These are often the first people an artist talks to when things go wrong.