Four time Olympic rower, child advocate, and community champion, Silken Laumann has joined the Woodwynn Farms Board of Directors. 

Silken brings to Woodwynn a wealth of board experience including chairing the International Board of Right to Play for six years, serving on the Nike Corporate Board, chairing the Lou Marsh Award and currently sitting on the board of Goodlife for Kids Foundation.  Silken was involved with the Courage to Comeback awards both in Toronto and Vancouver for a total of seventeen years.  For several years, Silken ran a not-for-profit called Silken's Active Kids Movement which aimed to increase opportunities for kids to be active in the communities.  Through her work at Silken's Active Kids Movement, Silken became increasingly passionate about community connection. 

"Our communities need to continually look at ways of increasing connection,” explained Silken Laumann. “Much of my work at Silken's Active Kids Movement was aimed at building connection between neighbours and school communities.  On a broader scale, our communities need to find ways to reintegrate the mentally ill, the disenfranchised - the homeless. Woodwynn Farms aims to create a Therapeutic Community that helps homeless people build the skills and self esteem needed to realize meaningful and productive lives.  I have been to the farm and believe in the vision of this project.  In order to be fully realized, Woodwynn needs the support of the Victoria region.  I believe Woodwynn will be a lasting legacy of hopefulness and change that our community can be proud of – one that will be modelled in other communities in Canada.”

“Silken’s passion for community and her values as a person are such an excellent fit for our organization” said Richard Leblanc, Executive Director of the Creating Homefulness Society.