10 Canadians Giving Back for November 2026

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November is a month of remembrance and gratitude in Canada, and as the cold sets in, food banks, shelters and community groups lean harder on the people who show up for them. This month’s list honours ten Canadians who give their time, skills and energy to their neighbours. Some have been at it for decades, others started as teenagers. They run food banks and youth hubs, offer free dental care and tax help, bring menstrual products to the North, keep Acadian culture alive and make travel accessible. They live in Quebec, the Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Alberta, Ontario, British Columbia, Yukon, Manitoba and New Brunswick. Many were recognized with Canada’s Volunteer Awards or other honours, but for each of them the work came first.

1. Isabelle Ducharme

For more than 30 years, Isabelle Ducharme has worked to include people with disabilities in everyday life, drawing on her own lived experience. She has chaired the board of Kéroul, which works to make tourism and culture accessible, since 2010. She trains tourism staff, launched a pilot project for adapted taxis in Montreal in 2024, and sits on advisory committees for Aéroports de Montréal, Air Canada and VIA Rail. She has organized or co-chaired international summits on accessible tourism in Montreal (2014), Brussels (2018) and Turin (2025). She received the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers in 2018, was named a Knight of the Ordre de Montréal in 2025, and was a 2025 Canada’s Volunteer Awards recipient as a Community Leader for Quebec.

Learn more: Kéroul

2. Jim Stauffer

Jim Stauffer has volunteered for more than 40 years in the Tłı̨chǫ communities of Whatì, Behchokǫ̀, Gamètì and Wekweètì in the Northwest Territories. Since 2010, he has coordinated interagency meetings on the housing shortage, and his mediation helped start a home repair co-op that fixes about 20 homes a year. He has championed a community garden since 2013 and offers free Tłı̨chǫ language classes that have reached more than 50 learners. For 30 years he led the local CRA Volunteer Income Tax Program, training volunteers and securing donated software. He has also helped bring agencies together and led evacuations. He was a 2025 Canada’s Volunteer Awards recipient as a Community Leader for British Columbia and the North.

Learn more: 2025 Canada’s Volunteer Awards recipients

3. Darlene David-Cashin

In Torbé, Nova Scotia, the four francophone communities of Port Felix, Larry’s River, Charlos Cove and Lundy keep their Acadian culture strong with help from Darlene David-Cashin. Active with La Société Acadienne de Torbé since 2017, she leads Port Felix’s annual week-long cultural celebrations. She draws on a legal background and office experience to mentor adults and students, and she speaks up for seniors, artisans, musicians and people facing hardship. She hosts fraud prevention sessions, end-of-life planning workshops and wellness activities. She also cooks meals for people who are ill, helps neighbours fill out applications, drives them to appointments and supports families in crisis. She was a 2025 Canada’s Volunteer Awards recipient as a Community Leader for the Atlantic region.

Learn more: 2025 Canada’s Volunteer Awards recipients

4. Sheliza Kassam

Sheliza Kassam was 15 when she founded Children’s Birthday Miracles, a volunteer-run non-profit in Alberta that throws monthly birthday parties for underprivileged children. Over 12 years, it has celebrated more than 3,500 children, with chapters mentioned in Edmonton and Calgary, and it has expanded to Africa. She also leads Pembina’s Sherwood Park Community Action Team, which directs $150,000 a year to local causes, and she set up a volunteer gift-wrapping program for the Stollery Children’s Hospital. She serves on the board of the Edmonton chapter of Canadian Women in Energy and works as a motivational speaker. She was a 2025 Canada’s Volunteer Awards recipient as an Emerging Leader for the Prairies.

Learn more: Children’s Birthday Miracles

5. Dr. Raj Khanuja

More than 20 years ago, Dr. Raj Khanuja of Orangeville founded Doing Positive in My Backyard to give free dental care to underserved people. The effort now spans 10 clinics in Orangeville, Brampton, Fergus and Stoney Creek, with more than 10 dentists and many other professionals and suppliers donating their time or materials. In 2025 he called for a National Dental Care Day and scheduled 10 free care days across his clinics. He works with cultural and faith-based groups that serve Indigenous and LGBTQ+ communities. His honours include the Canada 150 Medallion and an RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award, and he received a special mention as a Community Leader in the 2025 Canada’s Volunteer Awards.

Learn more: 2025 Canada’s Volunteer Awards recipients

6. Amanda Coombs

Amanda Coombs founded Back 2 Basickz Youth Support Services to support Black communities in Toronto’s Jane and Finch neighbourhood and in Scarborough. The hub offers help with jobs, education, mental health and mentorship, and it connects local organizations and grassroots groups. It also serves adults, single parents and low-income families. Coombs knows the barriers firsthand. After overcoming her own, she went on to earn a master’s degree in clinical counselling from York University and now provides adult mental health counselling. Many of the young people she mentored have grown into leaders within the organization, which is the kind of result that keeps a community group going. She received a special mention as a Community Leader in the 2025 Canada’s Volunteer Awards.

Learn more: Back 2 Basickz Youth Support Services

7. Stephanie Quon

British Columbia’s Stephanie Quon started young and kept going. At 15 she founded The Sprouts Initiative, which has mobilized more than 500 volunteers to deliver over 25,000 meals to shelters and over 20,000 care packages to low-income families. She then founded CAN-ACCESS, a national network that raised $100,000 in five months and has led more than 120 accessibility projects. It has trained 7,500 health care professionals and offers free consulting to more than 300 organizations. Her STEM workshops have reached more than 1,000 high school students, and she has given over 2,000 volunteer hours to crisis intervention and suicide prevention. She was a 2025 Canada’s Volunteer Awards recipient as an Emerging Leader for British Columbia and the North.

Learn more: 2025 Canada’s Volunteer Awards recipients

8. Tracey Bilsky

When the Arctic Winter Games came to Whitehorse in 2026, Tracey Bilsky volunteered as president of the Host Society. In that role she supported the board, the general manager, staff, volunteers, committees, sponsors and community partners as they worked toward the Games. The mayor of Whitehorse called the 2026 Games “a smashing success.” In recognition, the City of Whitehorse named Bilsky its 2026 Volunteer of the Year and presented the award at a ceremony at City Hall on July 7. Her nomination summed up what people noticed most: “What stands out most about Tracey is her ability to lead with both strength and kindness.” Big events like the Games run on volunteers, and Bilsky led that effort from the front.

Learn more: 2026 Arctic Winter Games

9. Janessa Roy

Janessa Roy, a teacher from Île-des-Chênes, Manitoba, joined Moon Time Connections in 2021 after hearing about it on a CBC podcast, and she took on the lead role for its Manitoba chapter. The national non-profit, founded in 2017 by Saskatchewan Métis woman Nicole White, supports Indigenous women and girls by bringing period products and education to northern communities. It has served 161 northern communities and shipped more than six million products to schools, health centres, clinics, food banks and community centres. Roy took a temporary leave from teaching to focus on the work. Explaining why it matters, she said students without products “basically missed a week [of school] out of every single month.” The group has also trained more than 100 local facilitators.

Learn more: Moon Time Connections at True North Aid

10. Heather Patterson

Heather Patterson began volunteering at the Sackville Food Bank in New Brunswick in 2015 and became its president in 2017. Demand has grown: before the pandemic, the busiest day saw about 55 people, and now it is typically at least 80. In November 2024, when a regular turkey supply fell through, the food bank appealed to the community and received 17 or 18 offers within 24 hours. It offers fresh produce, meat, eggs, cheese and milk, and recently added a colder storage room. In April 2025, Food Depot Alimentaire presented her with a King Charles III Coronation Medal, citing her “strong leadership and compassion.” Her goal is a hopeful one: “We want to shrink, if not just go away altogether.”

Learn more: Sackville Food Bank

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