The Winnipeg Boldness Project

 By Katherine Rempel, 1st year MDP student

Through a Mitacs fellowship and the support of Social Innovations Canada, I am completing an Accountability Framework Report during my placement at Boldness. Over the past month I have focused my time on the following activities:

1.            The Burns Leadership Institute Canada President’s Student Leadership Program (PSLP) at the
University of Manitoba selected 20 students from postgraduate study across Manitoba from 15 different disciplines to be in the 4th cohort of student leaders.  I applied through my placement to grow my leadership skills, experience learning from multiple perspectives, and applying my learning to positive change in my career.  This opportunity also provided an unique chance to learn from the Winnipeg Boldness Projects executive director Diane Roussin who was the opening presenter.

2.            Conducted an environmental scan of the governance structures of local Indigenous organizations.  The research produced an excel document for the organization of 30 local Indigenous organizations with recorded details around how the organization governance was structured, the values and missions of the organizations, and how they were funded.

3.            An environmental scan of articles focused on Indigenous governance in an organizational setting, Indigenous governance values, the historical Indigenous governance, Indigenous methods, and accountability and collaboration was completed finding 30 articles to use as references for the Accountability Framework Report.

4.            Creating and conducting a personal interview opportunity to explore the creation story and background behind the Winnipeg Boldness Projects formation with Diane Roussin.  This offered valuable insight into the generational governance and relationships of community organizations in the North End of Winnipeg.

5.            As part of the Mitacs fellowship I attended multiple Social Innovation Canada Plenary sessions to engage and interact with other fellowship recipients.  This has provided a platform for support and to share the work being conducted by the students with one another.