Not only is Leah Denbok raising awareness about homeless across North America, she’s also putting Collingwood on the map around the world.

The 17-year-old Collingwood resident is the author of Nowhere to Call Home, a book of photographs and stories of the homeless. The book features about 40 pictures as well as stories of individuals.

Denbok, along with her father Tim, spent three years taking photos of homeless people in various communities including Barrie, Toronto and New York.

This is the first in a series of books she plans to produce, with the second to be published next summer.

All proceeds from the sale of the book will go to the Barrie Bayside Mission Centre, one of the locations where she took pictures.

The photographs from the book have been transferred on to canvas and will be shown at the Collingwood Public Library in December and January, with the official launch of the exhibit set for Dec. 6 at 6 p.m. She will sign copies of the book, and the canvases will be auctioned off. All money from the sale of the pictures will go to Home Horizon.

It was her dad who suggested she take pictures of homeless people, and she admits to being tentative at first.

“Like most people, I had a pretty naïve view of what homelessness is and what the people who are homeless are like,” she said in an interview with Simcoe.com “When we set out, I was pretty worried about how it would go. After talking to the individuals and hearing their stories, you really realize they are no different than you and I. Most of them are very kind and very humble people; they have found themselves in a situation they couldn’t get out of.”

While the money raised from the project will stay local, she has garnered attention around the world.

Denbok was a speaker at WE Day 2017 at the Air Canada Centre. She has been invited to speak at Women of the World Festival 2018 in Australia, and an invited guest at the ARTWALK NY in New York City.