Professionals getting organized
- EFN Staff | March 07, 2014
"Why have a Saskatoon Aboriginal Professional Association?" Cherish Deegan, President of the Regina Aboriginal Professional Association, asked rhetorically. "Why not have a Saskatoon Aboriginal Professional Association?" she answered herself to many chuckles from the crowd.
Deegan was the keynote speaker at Creating Connections, an event that is hoped to be the launch of a professional association in Saskatoon based on the Regina Professional Association model.
RAPA as it is known, has been in existence for fifteen years and has been integral in creating a strong bond in the Aboriginal professional network, as well as supporting charities and in moving events like National Aboriginal History month forward.
At the Urban Aboriginal Strategy's Community Engagement Forum held in March of 2013, members of the Aboriginal community identified the need for an Aboriginal Professionals Association for the city of Saskatoon. A committee was struck and led to the first event featuring Deegan as well as a panel of community folk that use networking in their business or artistic endeavors. Of course there was networking time and food, too.
CeCe Baptiste is a committee member and a driving force behind this idea.
"We have a lot of great talent within our community and over the past few decades our number of leaders has increased, people who have made a difference in both improving our relations with the non-Aboriginal populations and increasing opportunities for up and coming individuals to be successful," said Baptiste. "There is still a lot of work that needs to be done to ensure that this success increases and that more Aboriginal peoples are attached in the workplace. What this association would do is increase peoples' networks across sectors and across the spectrum within a career life cycle. We can provide support to one another through mentorship opportunities and increasing our exposure to different careers and viewpoints."
The panel at Creating Connections was diverse and thorough. Gilles Dorval from the City of Saskatoon talked employment. Melody Wood of kimiwan zine talked about social media. Chris Sicotte of Affinity Credit Union talked about networking for business, and Heather Abbey of shopindigenous.ca talked about the need for both in her business.
The ultimate goal of the evening was to create some momentum and for a committee to take the association forward past a March event.
"You can tell the interest was high," said Baptiste. "We had over 120 people show up, so we are thrilled. We wanted to build excitement from the grassroots level and inspire people to stand behind such an initiative. We've had some really great positive feedback so far from the attendees."
The next event is this month and that is when the Association will be officially handed over from the UAS group that started it. Not only will the organization do good work, it will elevate fellow Aboriginal people.
"I believe that there is a needed space to highlight our successes," added Baptiste. "The Aboriginal voice is growing; we are an important part of the economy and we can do great things when we band together in a unified way."
Individuals interested in becoming involved with future planning for this initiative may submit their expression of interest to Brad Bird, Urban Aboriginal Strategy Coordinator by email.