Open Heart Collaborative
Advocating for Substance Use and Mental Health Rights
About Us
Open Heart Collaborative is a peer led organization that has been operating since 2019 out of Nanaimo, BC and remotely across Canada. Founded by two young women with lived and living experience around mental health, substance use, homelessness, poverty, and other social and economic issues. Open Heart was created to take those experiences and use them to better services, educate the community, reduce stigma, and build capacity and set goals in others with lived and living experience.
Lenae Silva
Co-founder
A life-long resident of Nanaimo, Lenae has seen the ever changing landscape of substance use and mental health care in this port city. She is part indigenous from the Squamish Nation, and has been a substance user since 2001. Her passions have been aimed at peer work and participates in monologues, outreach, education, policy change, and compassion in action.
Contact: Lenae.Silva1@gmail.com
Jessy Knight
Co-founder/Ex Member
Born in Ontario, Jessy has settled recently in Nanaimo, bringing her well formed experiences and beliefs in human rights and activism along with her. She is a stark advocate for making things better for those who have had similar experiences as her, and compassionately changes all areas she touches.
Jessy has since moved on to continue their invaluable work with other community members, services, and peer to peer work. We know their work will keep rippling change across Canada.
Moths.N.Flames
View artwork from Lenae by clicking the facebook or instagram links below
"Untitled Watercolour"
More paintings to come!