About the Founder

Maggie Blake's work sits at an unusual intersection: she has experienced the entertainment industry as a professional child performer, spent more than a decade professionally working in child development, child abuse prevention and trauma-informed practice, and now works inside professional productions to help change the systems around young performers.

Maggie began working professionally as a child actor in film, television and theatre, including leading roles at the Stratford and Shaw Festivals. She later built her career at the frontline of child abuse response — supporting children and youth through forensic interviews and courtroom testimony, helping families navigate the systems that follow disclosure of abuse, and providing direct clinical care to children and adolescents. Over time, her focus expanded into research, evaluation, knowledge mobilization and systems change.

She currently leads Research & Knowledge Mobilization at Boost Child & Youth Advocacy Centre, one of Canada's largest Child & Youth Advocacy Centres, where she also serves on the organization's Leadership Team.

Her advocacy work in the entertainment industry began when she raised concerns about the developmental and psychological safeguards surrounding a production of Romeo and Juliet, in which a 14-year-old performer had been cast opposite an adult Romeo. The Stratford Festival subsequently brought Maggie into the production to help build those safeguards.

What began with one production developed into a broader practice.

Maggie is now entering her sixth season leading child performer advocacy at the Stratford Festival and has expanded the work into film and television as a Child Safety & Wellbeing Consultant, including work on AMC's Interview with the Vampire.

She holds two master's degrees — one in Child & Youth Work, one in Acting.

Her work brings together lived experience, professional expertise and systems thinking to ask a larger question: