President Mandy opened the meeting at 5:45 PM noting that tonight was a small group of less than 20 members. Dave Morris was asked to lead the group for O Canada and the Rotary grace for the group present. The meeting was then handed over to Acting Sarge, Lyle Miller.
The Acting Sarge introduced our guests for the evening.
Jennifer Biggs, Turning Leaf, Director of Supported Independent Living
Swani Landry, Turning Leaf, Director of Marketing and Communications
Rotary Moments
President Mandy spoke at the Winnipeg West Rotary Club about our club activities.
Lloyd Talbot received an email from Anna Thurmayr, Landscape Architecture U of M, regarding the excellent quality of the Assiniboine Forest Planning Report.
Allan Roberts had received a cheque for $24 257 from the Provincial Government for the Assiniboine Forest Project of which $9300 will be available for club service projects.
Jim Forestell was asked for an update regarding the upcoming golf tournament. Jim submitted the following report after Tuesday’s meeting: ”Jim reports that the tournament is scheduled for Monday, September 9th at Breezy Bend. He was happy to say that we have six or seven foursomes committed from our club but we do need more participation. If you think you can get up a foursome please let Jim know and he will pass the registration forms to you. The three partners (us, the Assiniboine Rotary Club and the Assiniboia Chamber) will need considerable help from our members to put this tournament on. At our meeting on the 12th, Jim will be circulating a sign-up sheet to canvass for volunteers to help with the event. Please check your calendars now to make sure you keep that day free. Of course, family members are very welcome to help. Volunteers will get a free lunch and are able to attend the prime rib dinner for only $25.00.”
Mandy mentioned that she had received an email on July 24th asking for a RYLA bus chaperone, or chaperones, to accompany the campers travelling to camp on Monday August 5th.
Mandy stated that the next board meeting would be on Monday, August 19th.
President Mandy Kwasnica opened the meeting with a full room of Rotarians and guests. Our choir master, Dave Morris, was not present tonight so President Mandy provided the lead in for O Canada and Rotary Grace this evening. The meeting was then handed over to the Sarge for the night. Mike Dudar was absent tonight which allowed Darvin Jasper to be our Acting Sarge.
Acting Sarge Darvin introduced our guests, Sheila and Joel Templeman. Sheila is the daughter of Jim and Lorraine Forestell making Joel their son-in-law.
Rotary Moments
President Mandy reported on some of the information presented during the board meeting that took place prior to tonight’s general meeting.
Lobster dinner had a profit of ~ $20,800.00, this included $1,745.00 from the first 50/50 held during the lobster dinner as well as $5,380.00 from the bag auction .
We should all be very proud of the success of the lobster dinner as we put on the dinner by ourselves and only hire help where we need it.
There were 3 grants that had been applied for. One of the grants was approved outright and two others were on hold depending on the U.S. exchange rate. Well, all went in our favour and these other grants got approved as well!
$500 for RYLA
$1,000 for scholarships
$1,400 for running shoes for Westgrove School
Membership dues are ‘due’. Please make payment to Dave Morris.
The ‘Goose Chase’ is booked for September 14, 2019. This is a car rally with a finish point of Mandy Kwasnica’s home for a potluck dinner. Please assemble at Breezy Bend @3:30 pm for the start. Potluck food to be given to Mandy at the start; she will go home and set up the dinner while the rest of us follow the rally clues.
RibFest at the Forks. Date of the event is August 23 – 25, 2019. The following has been sent by Nancy Cosway; RIBFEST needs volunteers. Come and have a great time while making our RIBFEST a big success. Check out the list to see what you want to do. Here is the link: I just signed up for "Rotary RIBFEST 2019" and you should too! Click here now: https://signup.com/go/qTAKcwc Also you can win! Checkout our 50/50 at: www.ribfestwinnipeg5050.ca
District Governor Fred Wright will be having open meetings with all members invited with these dates to choose from: October 8, 2019 - 7:30AM, October 8, 2019 - Noon, October 8, 2019 - 5:30PM There will be an interactive discussion session after brief speeches.DG Fred Wright would like to hear from members on the topic "What does your club excel at?".There will be other discussion topics discussed as well as an opportunity for you to share. Each session will be the same, except with different attendees.Pretty much the same as having the DG attend at one of our club's meetings, but with different people in the room.Cost of the meals will be determined soon but can be expected to be around $20. President Mandy has asked that we all complete the Survey Monkey sent out regarding this D.G. event to determine who is and who is not attending…numbers only. There will be a meeting on Monday, October 7th, 2019 as usual.
”Jim reports that the golf tournament is scheduled for Monday, September 9th at Breezy Bend. He was happy to say that we have six or seven foursomes committed from our club but we do need more participation. If you think you can get up a foursome please let Jim know and he will pass the registration forms to you. The three partners (us, the Assiniboine Rotary Club and the Assiniboia Chamber) will need considerable help from our members to put this tournament on. At our meeting on the 12th, Jim circulated a sign-up sheet to canvass for volunteers to help with the event. Please check your calendars now to make sure you keep that day free. Of course, family members are very welcome to help. Volunteers will get a free BBQ lunch and are able to attend the prime rib dinner” (dinner may be included if volunteering)…. The time slots for volunteering will be 9:00 to 12:00 then 12:00 to 3:00 and finally 3:00 to 6:00. Jim advised that more prizes are required – please make the prizes a pack of 4 for the golf foursomes. There will be NO MEETING on Sept. 9th due to the golf tournament. As of Aug. 19th, 2019 there are 19 foursomes (76 golfers), it would be nice to have 5 more foursomes sign-up.
Charleswood Rotary LobsterFest 2020 will be held on Saturday, June 6th, 2020. – Hold the day!
Darvin Jasper advised that he still has some wine from the District Conference to sell at $10/ bottle. Please contact Darvin to purchase. ~20 left.
President Mandy reminded everyone that the Charleswood Rotary Club is still looking for a lead for Youth Services in the club. This is not a one-person job. This position is involved with RYLA, scholarships.
Speaker: Jennifer Biggs, Turning Leaf, Director of Supported Independent Living
Nancy Morris was very pleased to introduce the speaker as Jennifer grew up in Charleswood as friends with the Morris’s. Jennifer attended Beaumont School then Westdale School and later a BA in Psychology. She has worked in mental health in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and North Dakota before becoming a Director at Turning Leaf.
Jennifer was booked to speak at the Charleswood Rotary Club in 2014; however, she did not appear as her daughter was born 2 days early. Now five years later Jennifer is finally presenting to us. She has been at Turning Leaf since 2005 providing support to intellectually challenged adults, or those living with mental illness, so they can live independently in the community. Turning Leaf works to empower individuals and provides customized services to suit the individual. They see people differently and work with other agencies to help the individual client. They help people who fall through the cracks. Some clients have gone on to have families and their own businesses with employees.
Turning Leaf provides 8-4 day services, lawn care and assist to support independent living in a home. They have three different residential models:
group home
foster care
cluster model
What would Rotary want to know about what we do?
local
230 individuals across the Province with 85% in Winnipeg
280 individuals including Saskatchewan and Manitoba
only agency in multiple provinces
small stock of supplies in office for emergency
growing volunteer program (pitch to Rotary!)
volunteers needed for Turning Leaf Day with games, etc.
Proud of what Turning Leaf has done including the progress being made in Saskatchewan.
Questions:
Lloyd - Do you partner with other agencies such as Madison house? Yes, we worked with Madison House before it was taken over by Siloam Mission.
Jim - How does the 5% of clients in rural Manitoba communicate? Those clients are paired with staff teams who use technology to communicate. Turning Leaf did collect 200 cellular phones for this purpose.
Nancy - Do you have a newsletter? Not yet. We hope to soon have a bi-annual newsletter. We do use social media.
- Do you use private companies? Yes, we use other companies to train and support clients.
Mandy - How does a person in need of support get your help? Just call us or myself. We will take the information and try to get funding. We will work the system with and for you.
Nancy - How many staff do you have? In total about 350 with 65 in Saskatchewan. We are truly a client centric organization.
Mandy - Where does the funding come from? Funding is provided to clients by WHRA, etc.
Jennifer Biggs was thanked, on behalf of the club, by Jim Forestell.
Jim Forestell introduced our speaker for the evening, Sheila Templeman, who just happens to be Jim & Lorraine’s daughter. Sheila began her career as a teacher in the Louis Riel School Division. She then taught at The Royal Military College (RMC). She was in the military long enough to retire with the rank of Major; she also receives a military pension. After the military, she worked for Northern Affairs which has become known as Indigenous Services Canada.
Sheila advised that she started her current position about 2.5 years ago. The first thing she realized was just how much she did not know about her new position;
63 First Nations in Manitoba
13.6% of Manitoba’s population – 130,075 First Nations
Six of the 20 largest bands in Canada
Five First Nations linguistic groups:
Cree
Ojibway
Dakota
Ojibway-Cree
Dene
There are over 700 Indigenous businesses in Manitoba, accounting for 35,000 jobs and $1.1 Billion in salaries. The problem is the number of youths that are unemployed. There are 28,000 youth living on reserves between the ages of 15-30 and 50% of these youth are on income assistance, because there are not enough jobs in their community.
There are 63 First Nations in Manitoba, as far south as Buffalo Point and as far North as Tadoule Lake.
The First Nations and Inuit Youth Employment Strategy (or FNIYES) is a combination of two programs Skills Link and Summer Work Experience designed specifically for the First Nations and Inuit youth in order to provide them with the opportunity to gain skills.
Based on the Youth Employment Strategy funded by Employment and Social Development Canada, geared specifically to First Nations and Inuit youth.
What is FNIYES?
Skills Link and Summer Work Experience Program.
Objectives:
Enhance employability skills
Introduce career options
Promote education benefits
The program is designed to provide the youth with skills to get jobs, to provide opportunities that they do not have now. Perhaps go back to school, skills to get work in a store, be a band councillor.
FNIYES help First Nations and Inuit youth acquire essential employability and job-related skills, and prepare them for employment and career development.
The four specific initiatives within Skills Link are:
Mentored work placements;
Co-operative education placements and internships;
Career promotion and awareness; The annual Rotary Career Symposium is used in this area. The program provides the funding to get the youth into Winnipeg for the symposium.
Science and technology activities; The youth were trained in robotics on reserve. Recently 32 of the youth were brought to Winnipeg to help teach students in the city. They taught Winnipeg kids how to code and build robots.
Eligible Participants
First Nations and Inuit youth are eligible to participate in these activities if they are ordinarily resident on reserve, in recognized communities, or on community lands.
Ordinarily resident-on-reserve means that eligible youth live on-reserve, do not maintain a primary residence off-reserve, and may be temporarily off-reserve for the primary purpose of seeking education. Eligible participants have to be legally entitled to work in Canada. Youth means persons aged 15 to 30 inclusive.
Mentored work placements, including ICT, are for youth who are students, or are unemployed or underemployed. Co-operative education placements youth may be younger than 15 years of age as activities under cooperative placements are for students in grades 7 to 12 (secondary 1 to secondary 5), enrolled in and attending a federal or band-operated school.,For career promotion and science and technology activities, youth may be younger than 15 years of age.
Total budget provided to the First Nations in Manitoba is $9.447 million dollars.
The ‘Mentored Work’ represents wages in the kid’s pockets. Money they can spend as they wish. This is the number one goal of the program.
The program supports job readiness and training;
Skill building for youth employment
Resume writing workshops
Personal budget management
The participants are exposed to what it is like to have a job to go to – proper dress for the position, be on time. Also taught is first aid and CPR. The ASSIST Program is also taught. This is a suicide prevention program that gives the participants some skills to help those in the community thinking of suicide.
Youth Empowerment Camps;
Offer affirmative approaches
Enhance cultural teachings
Inspire self-determination
Guest speakers are brought in, such as elders from the community, to teach languages, medicine picking and highlight opportunities.
Several of the First Nations hire youth over the summer to work in community health care centers learning a little more about the health care world. Students job shadow front desk clerks, health care aides, records clerks and financial staff in the center. Students get the hands-on experience and also benefit from getting training such as first aid and CPR, suicide prevention and WHMIS.
Community gardening is done by making a garden out of old wooden pallets and windows. This allows fresh vegetables to be grown. This food is shared with elders for a healthier diet. This idea provides fresh vegetables and helps to reduce the level of diabetes in the communities.
There is an urban school transition / orientation week in August of each year to help the students going south for their education become familiar with the cities. They walk around the cities as well as learn about the various transportation modes.
Sheila was able to lead the 1st First Nations Youth Summit about a year ago that was designed to find out what the students wanted in their communities. There were 63 bands invited and 52 came to the summit to be represented (104 youth). They were taught how to project plan as well as how to write up a budget and official proposal. On the last day there were 42 people that spoke about their ideas and 17 of those asked for youth centres. The budget was $4 million with a max. of $1 million / community. There were 8 communities represented for the final selection in front of a selection committee of 8 people.
The students were given video cameras on loan to show their communities as they are now and to express what they would like to see for the future. On the final day of the selection, they were advised that all eight plans would be supported and funded.
It is all about how to get the money into the pockets of the kids.
Q/A
1.-Chuck Crocker wondered if most of the 700 aboriginal businesses were off reserve.
A.- Not all. Many bands own large scale businesses including shopping malls, gas stations, casinos, demolition of Kapyong Barracks site.
2.-Nancy Morris wanted to know the identity of the female narrator in the video?
A.-Works for First People’s Development Inc.. There is a partnership with them for this program.
3.- Nancy Morris wondered how the ‘Gardens at Garden Hill’ are doing after all the wildfires in the area?
A.- Not sure of that specifically, but they did lose a lot in the fires. The OCN Gardens are hydroponic grown. 30 days to grow a head of lettuce. This technology can be boxed up in a freight container and shipped north for fresh vegetables through the north all winter long.
Ed Gramiak thanked Sheila for her presentation. She was advised that a donation would be made to ShelterBox in her name. President Mandy expressed her amazement and support of the fantastic work that is being done in the North.
Brian Campbell was happy to have visited a grandson in Ontario but he found Lake Superior very cold for swimming.
Darvin Jasper had a sad/happy buck as a cousin had passed away but he was happy to have had the opportunity to visit with family.
Jack Wilson was happy to report that Isadora, a former club exchange student from Brazil and her husband had received their work Visas. Isadora is expecting in early 2020.
Mike Dudar was happy to be back with his knee healing from surgery.
Allan Roberts was happy that an apartment block project of his was finally underway after over a year in delays.
50/50
Guest Swani Landry drew number #365 belonging to Nancy Morris. Unfortunately, Nancy picked a white marble instead of the blue, so the pot continues to grow.
Fines
Sarge fined President Mandy for picking his table to get supper last.
Darvin was fined for not offering to do the Sarge’s job tonight - “no good deed goes unpunished.”
Alan was fined for promoting his business $$ at a Rotary meeting
Ed Gramiak handed over a H.B. for the Bombers and their consistent winning.
Nancy Morris was happy to have been able to cash in $12 worth of beer bottles for Polio+ this week. Keep the bottles and cans coming.
President Mandy had a great vacation spending time with her sister from Seattle as well as Brian’s family from Texas. Folklorama was fantastic.
Elaine Thompson enjoyed two weeks of Folklorama (not every night). The U.K. Pavilion was surprising. The average age of the performers was 13.
Brian Campbell also enjoyed Folklorama with family. On Thursday night they went to Mexico for a Day of the Dead celebration. A grand daughter really is into this type of thing, so she had a great time. They actually sat with Darvin and his family. Their grand daughters had a fantastic time together!
Chuck Crocker was just happy to be back, but a cold continues to haunt him!
Rod Delisle had a great time camping at Rushing River, east of Kenora.
Paul Brault is back from a wonderful 2 weeks of vacation. His son must now return to China. All the protests in Hong Kong are a bit of a worry, but he was able to fly directly to mainland China, so happy about that.
Birthdays & Anniversaries
Bill Johnson & Janet are celebrating an anniversary.
Doug McKenzie and Sandie are celebrating 37 years of marriage.
50 / 50
Acting Sarge Darvin asked our guest, Sheila, to pull the potential winning ticket stub. She pulled # 245. Now, this number just happened to belong to her husband, Joel! No, the ‘fix’ was not in…he did not manage to pull the blue marble. Nancy Morris offered a consolation prize tonight – a T-shirt from Turning Leaf.
Fines
Sarge had no fines tonight.
President Mandy advised that next week will be called ‘Rotary Service Fair’. She will be talking about the various ways a Rotarian can get involved with their club, community and international service.
There are 63 First Nations in Manitoba, as far south as Buffalo Point and as far North as Tadoule Lake.