It was a business idea that Taylor Norris and Broder Currie came up with while still in high school, to start a clothing company called 519 Clothing.
“It’s clothes that are comfortable, clothing you can wear 365 days a year clothing we love it’s a little bit of everything,” says Currie.
But the pair didn’t want to just sell clothes. Norris says they wanted to use the business as a platform to raise awareness and money for youth mental health initiatives.
“It’s been a big problem in high school and university with all of our friends even so we thought it was the best thing to give back to and we always wanted something behind our brand from the start so we thought mental health was the best way to go."
The clothing is sold online and ten percent of each sale goes towards FEMAP, the First Episode Mood and Anxiety Program through LHSC.
“This is spectacular! There is no higher compliment than having the people that you serve go out and raise money for you,” says FEMAP Founder Dr. Elizabeth Osuch.
FEMAP welcomes approximately 200 new patients a year, but it’s a nine month wait list to get in, something Dr. Osuch Says is a problem due to lack of funding and space.
“If a young person has decided is time to ask for help the last thing we want to be doing is saying well we are going to have you wait so it’s not ideal."
Norris says That’s why initiatives like the one set up through 519 clothing is so important, to raise much needed funds but also much needed awareness
“There is definitely a stigma behind it and we find it even more through doing this and we have had a lot of people reaching out to us that haven’t talked about it before so that’s good too”.
