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Our Place campaign puts Greater Victoria’s youth in the picture

Elfrida Schragen painting portraits of young leaders to raise funds for Victoria’s most vulnerable
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Victoria artist Elfrida Schragen’s Admired Youth portrait of youth poet laureate James Summer. (Courtesy Elfrida Schragen)

The contributions of Greater Victoria’s youth can be seen in a whole new light.

To celebrate the region’s incredible, hard-working youth, Our Place has launched a campaign to immortalize a few of these young leaders in portraiture created by local artist Elfrida Schragen.

“There are so many impressive youth in our region,” said Julian Daly, executive director of Our Place. “And this is just one small way for us to shine a spotlight on their work.”

Our Place worked with Schragen last spring to present Admired: Portraits of Influential Women that produced 40 portraits featuring admired women from Greater Victoria. With Admired Youth, Schragen plans to highlight 25 to 30 young people (ages 18-29) who are making or have made significant contributions to social services by improving nourishment, hope and belonging in the region.

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“People seemed to love the Admired Women fundraiser,” said Steven Seltzer, manager of special events and corporate giving. “It was a great way to celebrate incredibly positive local stories during challenging times. And the vision and accomplishments of the young leaders we now profile are just as inspiring.”

An online auction for Admired: Portraits of Influential Women raised more than $47,000 in donations for Our Place. A similar auction is being planned for Admired Youth, which will launch on June 1.

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Our Place is currently seeking nominations for five more inspirational youth. To nominate someone, contact Seltzer at stevens@ourplacesociety.com.

The portraits will be available for viewing and donations on June 1 at https://hibid.ca/events/portraits-of-caring.


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Victoria artist Elfrida Schragen’s Admired Youth portrait of local artist, educator and community activist Temoseng (Charles Elliott). (Courtesy Elfrida Schragen)