Changing the world means changing our behavior and there’s no better place to start than with our children.
$10,000 = 40 free workshops to approximately 1200 youth!
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Did you know the fashion industry is the 2nd largest polluter next to oil?
This is an astounding fact, and one that has made many people question where our clothes come from, who makes our clothes, and where they end up when we are done with them.
Fashion Takes Action is Canada's only non profit organization devoted to the social and environmental impacts of the fashion industry. While reaching adult consumers remains important to us, we have chosen to also educate and empower youth - BEFORE they become consumers.
If we can help them understand what goes into making our clothes, and relate to the people who farm the fields, process and dye the materials, cut and sew the garments, then perhaps we could see a large-scale shift in how we make, buy and care for our clothes.
My Clothes My World is available for grades 4-12 (in both English and French). Our full and half-day workshops elicit discussion around consumerism, human rights and environmental degradation while we open the students' eyes to the truth about the apparel industry and inspire them to take meaningful action.
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Why Fashion?
Some of the negative impacts of the fashion industry that we cover in our workshop include:
- The use of toxic chemicals to grow, process and treat fabric
- Unfair and unsafe labour practices
- The enormous amounts of water required to make clothing
- Unethical and often unregulated disposal of contaminated water into global rivers and lakes
- Fast fashion and over-consumption contributing to the growing number of textiles in landfill each year.
Through a holistic lens the program presents students with a number of questions about the industry and their direct impact. By the end of the day they are able to describe several problems that exist, and come up with sustainable solutions.
Our most popular activity, turning an old t-shirt into a bag, is a hands-on opportunity to explore the idea or solution, of upcycling or repurposing.
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Sounds great right? It is, but we need your help!!
What We Need to Make this Happen
Our goal is to expand the reach of My Clothes, My World Neighbourhood Improvement Areas (NIAs) in Toronto with the hopes of expanding the program across Ontario with our 206-2017 campaign. As we are not funded by any school system, nor do we receive any third party or government support, the hard cost to each school to deliver our workshop is $500, so $10,000 would allow us to fully subsidize 40 schools, reaching an average of 1,200 students in local NIAs.
With the help of our charitable partner, Inner City Angels, and a small subsidy fund we created in 2015, we were able to deliver the program to more than 300 students in schools in NIAs across Toronto, which would otherwise not have been reached.
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Fashion Takes Action
FTA is Canada’s premier non-profit organization that focuses on sustainability in the fashion industry. Our goal is to shift behaviour toward more positive social and environmental impacts.
Since FTA began in 2007 we have worked with more than 300 fashion designers, retailers and brands. As an awareness and advocacy group, we have run a number of campaigns across Canada, and have hosted or participated in several public events, helping to bridge the gap between industry and consumers.
FTA is a volunteer-run organization that has yet to receive funding of any kind. In the nearly 9 years since inception, every success has been made possible because of our amazing volunteers and the personal investment of our founding executive director Kelly Drennan. For more information please visit our website.
Other Ways You Can Help
If you are unable to donate to our cause at this time, here are some suggestions of other ways you can support FTA and My Clothes, My World:
- Email your friends and share the campaign page link.
- Share through social media
- Contact your School Council to find out how you can fundraise or access funds to get My Clothes, My World into your child's school.
Thank you for helping us bring this valuable workshop to children who would otherwise not have access!