A foundation rooted in lived understanding

The Harvey Foundation for Justice & Opportunity carries the Harvey name in honour of my late mother, Nahtashea Maylynn Harvey, whom I lost to suspected suicide in 2017. Her life, her struggles and her memory are at the heart of this Foundation.

Losing my mother reshaped how I understood instability. I saw firsthand how the circumstances a family faces — and the systems they move through — can reach into every part of a person's life, including their education and their sense of what is possible. For a time, my own path felt uncertain. But education became an important part of changing the trajectory of my life. It gave me a way forward when other doors felt closed.

That experience is why this Foundation exists. I have also had family members who have been incarcerated, and I have seen how justice-system involvement can affect far more than the individual at the centre of a case. Families can experience lost income, instability, stigma, interrupted education and fewer opportunities. Children, partners, siblings and parents can carry consequences even though they were never charged with anything themselves.

Through this Foundation, I want my mother's memory to live on by creating opportunities for others. Her name and legacy are connected to an organization built on the belief that people are more than the most difficult circumstances they have experienced. Whether someone has faced incarceration, criminal charges, addiction within their family, financial instability, stigma or the consequences of a loved one's involvement with the legal system, those obstacles should not have the final say in what they are able to become.

I am creating this Foundation to invest in what happens next: education, training, stability and opportunity. The goal is not to judge whether someone is deserving based on a charge, conviction or family circumstance. The goal is to create fair, transparent pathways to education for eligible people whose opportunities have been materially affected by the legal system — and to help others find the same path forward that education gave me.