Wellbeing 4 Winnipeg

 By Kate Rempel, 1st year MDP student

Through my placement with the Winnipeg Boldness Project, I have had the opportunity to receive leadership training through the Burns Leadership Institute Canada President’s Student Leadership Program (PSLP) at the University of Manitoba.  As part of our program requirement, we complete a group project by creating partnerships with value aligned organizations, bringing our idea from the planning stage into implementation in a matter of weeks.  Our group is called Wellbeing 4 Winnipeg (W4W) and we have successfully partnered with Mount Carmel Clinic to host community engagement sessions aiming to provide community led lower barrier mental health recommendations. 

My placement at the Winnipeg Boldness Project has provided a variety of opportunities for me to use the skills I have developed through the MDP program.  It is one thing to learn and write about the concepts in the classroom but seeing how the values and methods interact in the field has proven fundamental to my educational journey.  The PSLP provided a hands-on experience to implement the relationship building Boldness is built upon, really deepening my understanding of how relationships develop and interconnect across the Point Douglas community.  I found the work I have been doing has built my confidence as a development practitioner, recognizing how to use my voice to strengthen my values and how my knowledge can guide those from other disciplines in their work.   

The two biggest take-aways from my placement have been:

 (1) the importance in this work of surrounding yourself with a network of support that shares your values and goals.  The work can be draining when you find yourself fighting the same barriers, facing racism, and dealing with systems that need foundational changes.  You need a supportive team of people to inspire and reinvigorate you.  Finally, we often face the question in the field of what method works better.  Do we create new systems or fix the existing ones? 

(2) I have learned that we need both, only by taking both paths can we achieve our goals.