Our Story

Rebecca Harrison is a proud supporter of the Canadian arts and culture sector, and identifies particularly as a community arts advocate, connector and musician. She currently holds the position of Executive Director at Unity Charity, working alongside the staff, artist roster, and broader Canadian Hip Hop community to develop programming, curate events, and create accessible opportunities for young people to engage with and grow through Hip Hop. Her career has been spent working with and for young and emerging artists, artist educators and arts organizations, a professional path inspired by her own deep connection to art and music. With Record Label / Artist Management company, Coalition Music, she delivered music and music business education to youth from across Toronto’s priority neighbourhoods and First Nations reservations in Ontario. Alongside the City of Toronto and Manifesto Community Projects, she coordinated Arts Lab, a pilot project that provided mentorship and support to artists from underserved communities in the City. Prior to Unity, she worked with Business for the Arts, where she scaled mentorship programming for arts organizations across Canada from one province to eight, in just two years. Rebecca is also proud of the side projects she’s a part of–she provides pro bono funding and grant strategy consultations to emerging artists from across Canada, and is also a volunteer with Jumpstart Refugee Services, where she offers career and employability mentorship to newcomers in Canada.

Catie has been in love with music her whole life. From exploring her parents’ record collections as a child, to completing studies in voice and theory with the Royal Conservatory, music has been both a joy and safe haven for her for as long as she can remember and she attributes much of her own resilience to the community she found through music education. Catie has been working in development and communications in the charitable sector for the past decade, and has ample experience as a fundraising generalist, but specializes in establishing strong individual and community-based giving programs. She is a true believer in the power of collective impact, and feels there is nothing greater than finding opportunities for people to give back in ways that are both meaningful for them and the causes they care about. Nothing satisfies her more than developing new relationships, solving problems, and contributing to work that makes a difference in people’s lives. With those two things in mind, it is no surprise that she’s found her home in a place that embraces creativity and rewards her for helping people realize their potential and sets them on their way to achieving great things. When she’s not working, she’s usually catching a show, trying out the latest culinary fad, mostly winning at trivia, pool and poker games, planning her next trip, or snuggling up with a good book and a purring cat. Catie loves meeting new people and learning new things, so please feel free to say hello and share a story or two with her!

Clinton Ghosh, also known as “3rd Ghost”, has been a prominent member within the B-Boy community for 20 years. A member of Maximum Efficiency Crew, he contributes to the community by teaching Break Dancing classes at various community centers throughout the Toronto area. In 2008, Clinton founded, “Wreck Shop”, a community based dance event, to give young dancers a platform to showcase their skills and compete. Throughout his career, he has performed for KRS-1, competed internationally, and has won competitions with his crew across Canada. With 17 years experience creating, and running youth leadership programs, Clinton is proud to be a part of UNITY Charity, and to continue sharing his knowledge of the art and his passion for community building.

Bob Veruela Jr. AKA B-boy Boobjester has represented Winnipeg in many competitions and shows internationally. He is known in Canada for his original B-boy flavor, finesse, and amazing musicality, gaining national respect from the B-boy community. Breaking since 1994, his inspiration for dance throughout the years is his family, Mischief Crew (1994), GoodFoot Crew (1998), and his current B-boy crew, Dangerous Goods (2002-present). Bob has been involved in the Canadian B-boy scene for many years. Bob has helped organize local B-boy events such as Wintor Summer Jam, guest judged various competitions across the country, and has competed with the 32 best North American B-boys in Red Bull’s B-boy competition “King of the Ring”. In 2009, he was the recipient of the “Absolute Canadian B-boy Award”, presented by legendary B-boy crew Canadian Floor Masters from Ottawa. Bob currently works for Unity Charity as the National Program Director, designing and delivering programming through Hip Hop Arts, along with sharing his knowledge of Hip Hop Culture in dance communities and education systems. Bob has also travelled to instruct in Northern Communities and Youth Correctional Facilities through Blueprint Pathways/Blueprint 4 Life. Bob is one of Winnipeg’s Hip Hop ambassadors and continues to represent and teach B-boy culture in Canada.

Catherine Turcotte AKA ‘Catalyst’ is an educator and coordinator whose practice is oriented in community building, social awareness, care & empowerment. In 2003, Cat found her way to self-expression through dance. Driven to share this outlet with others, she began teaching in 2008. Her practice has been programmed in various institutions, charitable organizations, community spaces and school boards across Canada with students of all ages and of various physical and cognitive abilities. She has competed in freestyle battles where she successfully brought home victories such as “Queen of the North” in 2019, “Wintor Top Rock Bonnie & Clyde” in 2019, “Stick To Your Roots” in 2019, “Fired Up Still” 2018 and 2014, “KOD Canada” in 2016, “Bday Afternoon Jam” in 2012 and “Shut Up and Dance Crew Battle” in 2011. Passionate about access, she loves working alongside facilitators, supporting them in bringing out their strengths and vision to life. Acknowledging that when surrounded by community is where she thrives, she dedicates her work to youth wanting to connect with others, find self-expression & a space where they can be themselves and shine.

Ola comes with a robust set of skills ranging from strategy advisory, and accounting technology integration and implementation, which enables him to help organizations define their strategy, create dashboards and scorecards, and develop the KPIs they need to monitor and manage their business. He is able to bring to Unity his vast accounting experience, passion for building streamlined processes and strategies to better enhance their Finance department. Ola has always gravitated towards non-profit work, and Unity has solidified his belief that everyone should embrace their unique set of qualities that make them who they are, and use their skills to give back value to the world; leaving it better than when they met it. Specialties: Bookkeeping, Non-profit Growth Strategies, CFO Advisory, Technology Implementation and Integrations, and Business Systemization.

Mahad Shoaib aka “Arxade” is a social impact leader with demonstrated success in project management, non-profit fundraising, evaluating impact, strategic planning, quality improvement, developing community, and sustaining long-term relationships. As the Development & Learning Manager at Unity Charity, Mahad channels his passion for Hip Hop by managing various portfolios that provide sustainability, growth and tangible learnings to the organization. One of his fondest memories is experiencing Hip Hop through the Unity Day School Program after immigrating to Canada in 2008. As a Unity alumnus, Mahad is proud to be in a position to give back to the community. As the Founder & Artist at Arxade Music, Mahad uses his love for retro video games, movies and synthesizers to build soundscapes and breathe life into visuals for sync. Mahad attributes much of his knowledge & technical skill to the generous mentorship of Freshkils - a dear friend and absolute wizard of music production, arrangement, composition and mastering. When he isn’t working on music or non-profit, he is usually out on his motorcycle (or fixing it!), learning film photography, catching a movie/show, or planning his next travel or nature adventure. Ask him about either of those and you can be sure to leave the conversation with a higher nerd quotient.

Originally from Hong Kong, Adrian Chan has been living in Ontario for the past 10 years where his home base is in Scarborough. Discovering Hip Hop at an early age and across the world he has been practicing and competing in the art of breaking consistently. He also found his love for DJ and has been throwing and supporting local Hip Hop community event for Youth in Ontario. Adrian bases his work with a community/youth development approach by bringing people from different perspectives and worlds together to provide opportunities for growth and development of young people.