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.

 

My Field Placement with Portage & Main Press

By Tara Myran, 1st year MDP student

Boozhoo, my name is Tara Myran and I am entering my second year of the MDP in Indigenous Development at University of Winnipeg. This year for my summer field placement I was fortunate to have the opportunity of conducting a research project under the umbrella of the Six Seasons of the Asiniskaw Ithiniwak: Reclamation, Regeneration, and Reconciliation project. The title of the research is called “Exploring the Reconciliatory Potential of Marketing Processes in the Publishing Industry”. The research partners for this project are MITACS, Six Seasons and Portage & Main Press. During the summer I also enrolled in the MobilizeU workshop that also equipped me with the knowledge and tools needed to conduct this research in a good way.

Portage & Main Press introduced me to the publishing world and opened my eyes to all the fascinating behind the scenes work that is done when publishing any type of book. They also take pride in publishing Indigenous reading content and making sure to have those right connections in place when doing so. They also have Highwater Press which is an imprint of Portage & Main Press that published award-winning stories written by Indigenous authors.

I found it to be a challenge at times trying throughout the summer trying to work during the pandemic, but I was able to utilize traditional teachings from my late grandfather to help me mentally, spiritually, physically, and emotionally. On top of my academic studies, I had to focus on my children and their state of being during the pandemic and I am grateful for a program like MDP to have the supports put in place to help graduate students when needed. I would like to say Meegwetch to the MDP Program supports, my research supervisors Drs. Mavis Reimer and Linda DeRiviere, Portage & Main Press (Catherine and Laura) for hosting me and for my children who have given me the strength to continue on in this innovative and unique  program.