Dean Brody to receive the Gary Slaight Music Humanitarian Award

The CCMA has named Dean Brody as this year’s recipient of the Gary Slaight Music Humanitarian Award, honouring the multiple CCMA Award winner for his remarkable initiatives through The Dean Brody Foundation. Awarded annually, the award recognizes an individual(s) and/or event(s) that have made an outstanding contribution of time and energy in the support of humanitarian causes through country music.

Founded in 2011, Brody’s Foundation began supporting the rescue and prevention of young girls being exploited and trafficked around the world. Initially focused on Brazil, he quietly committed himself to the cause after travelling and seeing the crisis firsthand. Since the foundation’s inception, the hat star has personally and privately donated over $500K to the organization and has made over a dozen self-funded trips to Brazil to work alongside Meninadança and their “Pink Houses” initiative, providing safe homes for at-risk girls along Brazil’s “exploitation highway”, the BR-116.

In 2021, Brody expanded the foundation’s mission in partnership with the global organization International Justice Mission (IJM), supporting their efforts to combat the online exploitation of children (OSEC) in the Philippines and prevent harm before it happens. In his quiet and humble manner, He has also supported countless grassroots charities across Canada in addition to higher profile events including his 2022 partnership with the National Hockey League Players Association, donating $60K to the local minor hockey community in his hometown of Cranbrook, B.C. to ensure children of families facing financial barriers could access the sport.

The CCMA Award of Achievement is named in recognition of generous donations made by the Slaight Music Foundation. The 2023 Slaight Music Humanitarian Award will be presented to Brody during a private industry event as part of Country Music Week 2023, taking place September 14-16 in Hamilton, ON. For further details on the Slaight Music Humanitarian Award and other CCMA Awards of Achievement click here.