My name is Beck Deresse (they/them) and I am an illustrator and graphic designer interested in art as a tool for collective imagination and liberation. I graduated from Sheridan College in 2022 with an Honours Bachelor of Applied Arts in Illustration and I’m currently an MFA candidate in the Interdisciplinary Arts, Media, and Design program at OCAD U. My areas of research and practice pertain to contemporary Black Power building, prison abolition, and Black, queer feminism.

I strongly believe in the work being done at CCWS to support child welfare survivors. Family policing and family separation are issues that are incredibly invisibilized, but have consequences that are far reaching into the many facets of daily life.

As the Communications & Outreach Manager at CCWS, I meet with volunteers to strategize ways of building consciousness around the experience of being a child welfare survivor. Together as a team we ideate, develop, and disseminate content to broaden the general public’s understanding of this issue.