Q: CAN YOU SHARE A BIT ABOUT YOUR PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND AND HOW YOU INITIALLY CAME TO WORK AT THE BRIDGE?

A: Before joining the team at The Bridge Youth and Family Services I worked at School District #23 as an Indigenous Student Advocate for 6 years at one of our elementary schools in town. Each advocate did things differently and I kind of thought of myself as just another teacher as I would lead whole class lessons around indigenous culture and teachings from Kindergarten to Grade 6 all relating to the time of year, we were in. however in the last few years I was beginning to feel like the role was being very restricted in who I was able to help and I felt that I wasn’t doing enough for the youth so I was looking at changing careers to tourism. However, over the summer I saw that the Bridge was hiring for the role of Indigenous Wellness Liaison and I believed that my work in helping indigenous community members was not quite done so after a summer of waiting to hear back I had a few interviews and tours with John and members of WFN and was pleased and extremely grateful to hear that I was offered the Role.

 

A: This is interesting because when I started there wasn’t really a description of the role. The agency knew that the role was here to help and aid indigenous participants but exactly how it was still to be seen, over the last year of building this role alongside everyone I would say that my role is to help indigenous and non indigenous participants experience indigenous cultural traditions and practices to aid in their recovery and personal development journeys. I am also made available to indigenous Identifying participants to help navigate cultural resources available to them and providing assistance in reaching their goals.