pflag Canada’s Christa Duvall honoured with Ken Sadler award

Christa Duvall honoured with Pride London Festival’s Ken Sadler Award

pflag Canada is proud to share that Christa Duvall, former Chapter Lead of pflag London, founder of London’s Queer Food Bank, and Board Chair of pflag Canada, has been named the recipient of the Ken Sadler Award at this year’s Pride London Festival.

The Ken Sadler Award honours someone who demonstrates exceptional dedication over the past year to uplifting London’s LGBT2Q+ communities through active involvement with Pride London Festival or other local initiatives. It is one of the festival’s most meaningful recognitions because it comes directly from the community it serves. Nominations are submitted by community members, and winners are celebrated at the festival’s annual awards ceremony.

Anyone who has spent time in London’s 2SLGBTQIA+ community knows why Christa’s name came forward. Their volunteer work began in 2008, when they first walked into a pflag London meeting looking for support. They stayed, and in the years since they have quietly built much of the support infrastructure that London’s 2SLGBTQIA+ community relies on today. Christa has facilitated peer support for more than seventeen years, holding space week after week for whoever walks through the door. They created a peer group for youth, founded an international support group for partners that connects people over Zoom, and established the first Kid Zone at Pride London so that families could take part in the festival together.

Their most recent work speaks directly to what the Ken Sadler Award recognizes. The community food program Christa launched has served more than 1,000 families in roughly two years, meeting a need that too often goes unnamed in our communities. Food security is not separate from 2SLGBTQIA+ support work. For many of the people pflag London serves, it is the first door they walk through.

“Christa never set out to be recognized. They set out to make sure nobody in London had to figure things out alone. That is what makes this award fit so well.”
-Christopher Longtin, Vice-Chair pflag Board of Directors

Christa’s leadership extends well beyond London. As Chair of pflag Canada’s Board of Directors, they help guide a national network of chapters and coordinators providing peer support to 2SLGBTQIA+ people and their families across the country. The work they do locally is the same work pflag does everywhere: showing up, listening, and staying.

Congratulations, Christa. This recognition is well deserved.