ABOUT
A single spark can ignite a blaze that changes everything.
The Spark Strategy is a unique facilitated process to create that spark for your team.
What We Do
Comprehensive Solutions for Complex Gendered Violence Challenges
We provide end-to-end consulting services across the full spectrum of gender-based violence prevention and response, working with diverse organizations to build capacity, develop policies, and implement sustainable programs that prioritize survivor safety and community healing.
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Our approach is culturally-responsive, trauma-informed, and survivor-centered.
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Who We Serve
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Police, Military, and First-Responder Agencies
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Professional Athletic Institutions
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Educational Institutions
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Corporate Clients
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Community-Based Organizations
Meet Our Founders
JR LaRose is a 2011 Grey Cup champion. A proud member of One Arrow First Nation, he is an ambassador for Indigenous peoples. He is an accomplished speaker speaking and facilitating over 400 presentations throughout Canada and the United States since 2008. A proud family man, JR’s path to success has been a long and hard fought journey. Growing up in low-income housing in Edmonton’s inner city didn’t exactly set JR up for success but it did give him the drive to succeed. JR grew up without a father. His father, of Nigerian heritage, was deported back to his native country before JR was born, and JR never met his dad. To learn more about JR, watch the short documentary on his life here.
Bailey Reid is the Senior Advisor on Gender and Sexual Violence Prevention and Support, at Carleton University and holds an Advanced Certification in Design-Thinking from IDEO U. She holds a Masters degree in Sociology, with a focus on the intersections of true crime and gender-based violence and is now pursuing a Ph.D in Sociology. Before joining the team at Carleton, Bailey founded an organization that delivered important literacy, leadership, and vocational skills to criminalized women. Bailey sat as the Chair of the Public Engagement Committee of the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women, for ten years, an organization working to bring an end to gender-based violence in Ottawa.
Our Story
JR LaRose and Bailey Reid began working together in 2017, as part of a project by the End Violence Association of BC and the Canadian Football League to end gender-based violence in the league, and empower staff, coaches, and athletes to speak up if they thought a colleague was causing harm. Following a number of sessions together training the CFL, Bailey and JR created a pilot project at Carleton University with varsity athletes, entitled “Champions for Change.” A huge success, JR and Bailey realized that this was a methodology they could share with many others, and together they created The Spark Strategy.