Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively donate $200,000 to Indigenous Women Leadership initiative

Hollywood's power couple Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively are continuing their efforts to help those in need. The couple donated $200,000 to St. Francis Xavier University’s Coady Institute’s new initiative, the Circle of Abundance. The initiative works towards amplifying indigenous women’s voices and leadership.

“We’re so happy to support the incredible work of the Coady Institute’s program with Indigenous Women,” Ryan and Blake said in a statement, reported by ET Canada. “We’re blown away by the conversations we’ve had and the work they do and look forward to joining them on this journey.”

The goal is to raise $1 million to support Coady’s Institute’s International Centre for Women’s Leadership. The Centre’s Indigenous programming Coady Indigenous Program Lead and graduate Karri-Lynn Paul says an initial group of mentors and graduates from the past ten years is beginning to examine ways to journey forward together with the Coady and its partners. They have prepared a statement that accompanies this announcement.

“These Indigenous leaders are inspiring renewed energy on how to move forward with our work,” Karri-Lynn said in a statement on their official website. “Their insights and grounding of our work in the realities of grassroots Indigenous Women lives is an important piece in our journey. They also talked about how we are enough, and how we need to prioritize programs that are created by Indigenous women for Indigenous women. This funding offers the opportunity to make that happen.”

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively have stepped up $200,000 to NAACP Legal Defense Fund. They quietly donated $400,000 to four New York hospitals amid this pandemic.

ALSO READ: Ryan Reynolds crashes original X-Men’s virtual reunion with Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart and Famke Jansson