What does Good Ship do?
Good Ship works with film, television and theatre productions to strengthen the safety and wellbeing of minor performers. Support can include script and sensitive-material consultation, pre-production planning, production-team training, Child Safety Riders, one-on-one counselling and emotional support for young performers, and dedicated support on set or in rehearsal.
Good Ship can be brought in for a particular need or shoot day, or work with a production from preparation through filming and wrap.
Can Good Ship provide counselling or support on set for a minor performer?
Yes. Maggie Blake is a Child & Youth Counsellor and Child Safety & Wellbeing Consultant with nearly two decades of experience working with children and youth. She can provide dedicated on-set support for minors, including one-on-one counselling and emotional support, whether for specific scenes or shoot days or as part of a broader production engagement.
ACTRA Toronto specifically advises that when shooting content that may cause “emotional or mental stress,” productions should hire a properly accredited psychologist or therapist to provide support, and that the professional should be available throughout the production process, including on shoot days. The ACTRA Independent Production Agreement also includes specific protections where material may be psychologically damaging to a minor.
Good Ship brings counselling together with specialized expertise in child development, safeguarding and professional performance environments, allowing support to respond not only to the material being performed, but to the young performer’s experience of the production itself.
Productions can bring Maggie in specifically for on-set counselling or support; Good Ship does not need to have been involved from the beginning of the production.
Does Good Ship believe support is only necessary when a script contains sensitive or distressing material?
No. ACTRA’s language around content that may cause “emotional or mental stress” is important, but Good Ship takes a specific child-development view of what can create stress for a young performer.
A script does not need to depict abuse, violence or trauma for professional performance to place significant demands on a child. Minors are a vulnerable population working within adult professional environments. Power differences, pressure and expectations, repeated performance, long days, relationships with adult colleagues and peers, changing creative demands, public attention and the desire to please the adults responsible for their employment can all shape a young performer’s experience.
For that reason, Good Ship believes specialized Child Safety & Wellbeing expertise should be part of every production working with minors, not only productions involving conventionally “sensitive” material. Proactive support allows productions to identify and mitigate risk before there is a problem, while giving the young performer a consistent person whose responsibility is to keep their safety, wellbeing and voice present throughout the work.
Where a production does involve potentially distressing or psychologically challenging material, the need for that expertise becomes even more important.
Do you provide counselling or therapeutic support for child performers?
Yes. Maggie is a Child & Youth Counsellor, and one-on-one counselling and emotional support for young performers can be integrated directly into a Good Ship production engagement.
Depending on the minor and the work, this may include one-on-one support, preparation before challenging material, emotional regulation and grounding strategies, support during filming or rehearsal, post-scene check-ins, and helping a young performer move into and out of emotionally demanding work.
Because this support sits within Good Ship’s broader Child Safety & Wellbeing approach, Maggie can also work with the adults and production environment around the child — helping translate what a young performer needs into practical adjustments, communication and support throughout the work.
Counselling can be provided as part of a broader Good Ship engagement or when a production specifically needs counselling or emotional support for a minor performer.
What is a Child Safety & Wellbeing Advocate?
A Child Safety & Wellbeing Advocate is a specialist role within a production dedicated to the safety, wellbeing and voice of the young performer.
The Advocate brings expertise in child development, safeguarding, relationship- and trauma-informed practice and professional performance environments. The work can include anticipating and mitigating risk, preparing young performers and the adults working with them, supporting consent and ongoing assent, advocating for the young performer’s needs, responding to concerns in real time, and helping productions make developmentally appropriate decisions throughout the work.
Maggie is a qualified Child & Youth Counsellor, and the Advocate role includes one-on-one counselling and emotional support for the young performer alongside this broader production-facing work.
The Advocate works collaboratively within the production and complements the roles of parents and guardians, directors and producers, teachers or tutors, intimacy coordinators, unions and other professionals supporting the child.
Why consider a Child Safety & Wellbeing Advocate on a production involving minors?
Productions are increasingly recognizing that protecting young performers is about more than responding when something goes wrong. Risk mitigation and proactive support matter on every production involving minors.
Children and adolescents are developing people working inside adult professional systems. The relationships can be nuanced: young performers may be working alongside adults and peers, taking direction from people with significant authority, navigating expectations around performance and professionalism, and depending on adults for both their employment and their safety. Even an enjoyable and well-run production can contain complicated dynamics for a child.
A Child Safety & Wellbeing Advocate brings specialized child-development and safeguarding expertise into that environment from the outset — helping the production anticipate risk, strengthen communication, support the young performer’s voice and make adjustments before concerns become problems.
This approach is consistent with the direction of major performer unions. ACTRA emphasizes the protection and wellbeing of child performers and recognizes the need for additional care and guidance for minors. SAG-AFTRA describes minors working in entertainment as “particularly vulnerable,” and its Young Performers Committee identifies psychologically safeguarded work environments, protection from exploitation, and greater guidance and resources for employed minors among its priorities.
Where the work also involves sensitive, distressing or psychologically challenging material, Good Ship can provide additional preparation, one-on-one counselling and dedicated on-set support tailored to the young performer and the production.
Does Good Ship work with ACTRA and SAG-AFTRA productions?
Yes. Good Ship works with professional film, television and theatre productions and can support productions operating within ACTRA and SAG-AFTRA environments, including U.S. productions filming in Canada.
Both unions recognize that minors require particular protections in professional entertainment environments. ACTRA’s current guidance specifically addresses psychological and emotional stress and the provision of psychologist or therapist support for minors, including support available on shoot days. SAG-AFTRA identifies minors working in entertainment as particularly vulnerable and emphasizes both physical and psychological safeguards for young performers.
Good Ship can provide production consultation, Child Safety & Wellbeing advocacy, one-on-one counselling and emotional support, and dedicated on-set support for minors within these production environments.
Can we bring Good Ship in just for on-set support?
Yes. Good Ship can provide dedicated on-set support for minors for particular scenes, shoot days or periods of production. A production does not need to have engaged Good Ship during development or pre-production.
On-set work can include one-on-one counselling and emotional support, preparation before a scene, checking in with the young performer, consultation with the production team, real-time adjustments, post-scene support and helping the young performer transition out of demanding material.
Good Ship can also remain with a production for a longer period where consistent Child Safety & Wellbeing support would benefit the young performer and production team.
Can Good Ship review a script before filming?
Yes. Good Ship provides script and sensitive-material consultation for productions working with child and adolescent performers.
A developmental review can identify emotional, psychological and safeguarding considerations before filming and help the production think through preparation, communication, rehearsal, boundaries and how particular material will actually be shot.
This can be a stand-alone consultation or the beginning of a broader production engagement.
What is a Child Safety Rider?
The Child Safety Rider is a production-specific tool developed by Maggie Blake to establish clear expectations, safeguards, boundaries and communication around a young performer and their work.
Rather than relying solely on informal conversations or responding after something has gone wrong, the Rider creates a shared understanding of how the production will approach the child’s safety, wellbeing, voice and participation.
When should we contact Good Ship?
Any time a production involving a minor would benefit from specialized child-development, mental-health, safeguarding, counselling or on-set expertise.
That might be during development or script review, before casting or filming, when preparing a young performer for particular material, when a production needs counselling or emotional support on set, or after production is already underway and a need emerges.
You do not need to have involved Good Ship from the beginning.
Where does Good Ship currently work?
Good Ship is currently based in Ontario and works with professional film, television and theatre productions in Canada, including Canadian and U.S. productions filming here. Consultation, script review, planning and training can also be provided virtually.
Good Ship can travel to provide in-person Child Safety & Wellbeing, counselling and on-set support elsewhere in Canada or the United States as required by a production. For productions working across jurisdictions or union agreements, the scope of support can be tailored to the requirements of the production.