Henrick Sales

Stay Golden is the change I want to see. We want to create a community for youth to connect and share their stories through the arts. Through our programs, we engage and encourage youth to share what is on their minds and hearts. It allows the participants to open up and be vulnerable without judgment, prejudice, or discrimination. It is an outlet for their voices to be heard.

As someone who immigrated to Canada in 2006 and believes in the power of storytelling. I want to help push the needle forward in preserving and sharing the wealth of diversity that is brought by the migrants in Toronto's history. I want to be able to help make meaningful and engaging creative outcomes that help people understand the narratives that connect them. Help us create programming that promotes empathy and curiosity between storytellers, community members, and the larger public!

I have learned so much from being an independent artist. There have been many amazing opportunities that I was able to experience throughout my journey. It has taught me how to prioritize my well-being over projects. This experience has given me all sorts of mentors and friends. I am forever grateful for those who have helped me in my creative journey. If you know me, I am constantly dreaming of my next creative work. Highlights: « Grand Slam Champion for BAM! The Toronto Youth Slam (2010) « 2nd Place winner at the ACCLF Youth Poetry Slam (2010) « 2nd place at the Canadian Team Spoken Word Nationals (2011) « 2nd place at SpeakOut Youth Summer Slam (2011) « 2nd place for Ve’ahavta’s 10th Annual Creative Writing Contest (2011) « Awarded the Word of Mouth Grant (2013) « Self-Published Blue Lips (2014) « Co-Founded Stay Golden (2019) « Awarded Community Arts Grant (2020) « Awarded Artists in Communities and Schools Grant (2021)

This was me turning a hobby into something bigger. Being able to share something that I enjoyed and was passionate about while making a difference in the community was so rewarding. It also gave me a lot of technical skills in video productions, editing, and streaming that were super valuable when COVID happened in March of 2020. Facilitated the creation and execution of an interactive charity stream raising a total of $3500+ for Sick Kids hospital, Doctors Without Borders, and other charities. Made supporting materials including posters, social media announcements and websites with event details. Worked with different people around the world setting up online meetings and organizing events. Contacted and secured different sponsors to donate gifts and prizes.

I joined the CCYP fellows in order to provide a youth perspective that strengthens the work that CCYP is doing. My work with CCYP included creating an advocacy report that looks at how youth employment can benefit through arts programming. This was a topic that I was very much interested in. The report is based on my experiences as an artist and arts community planner. Creating such a report came when a youth I was working with in the Scarborough area asked me if I knew of opportunities that would give them the skills to get a job. At the time, I was doing arts programming. Still, I also desired to provide the youth with skills to help them become more employable in the workplace (in this context, employable means a youth who has skills that they can confidently leverage to find work). This same youth has the necessary skills but cannot market those skills and experiences to seize available opportunities confidently. This experience has shaped how I tackled the report and the many valuable outcomes of my initial research.

Worked as part of their summer program. Created an Integrated Marketing Campaign that outlined plans for 5n2 Soup Kitchen's future while doing background research and compiling key data and presenting 3 solid concepts with different key insights and centred around big ideas.