 Hello, my name is Amanda Killibuck. I am the manager of employment and education at the Museum at Inuit, located in Ottawa. Well, we have several programs. We used to have the education support program, and that was funded through the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skill Development. And that was targeting Inuit students in the Ottawa area in post-secondary. So it would range from, like, 18, 19 to probably early 30s. Yeah, and we would provide social, dense, cultural, sensitivity training if needed at the post-secondary institutions. We work with the Indigenous Centres in the post-secondary institutions, and we provide, like, country food and emotional guidance, I guess. Our aim is to provide the necessary wraparound supports needed for a student to be successful, and it all depends on each person's version of success. It's not necessarily completing a program. There's a lot of circumstances where a student may face where they might have to make a choice. And so our programming provides them the tool box, I guess, of whether it's coping mechanisms or just available options for them to make choices and hopefully stay in school. We also, like, through my other funding pod, which is assets, so it's the Aboriginal strategy on skills and training, we put together a program. So we have partnerships with other companies, and so we provide first aid training, forklift training. We might do a hodgepodge of certifications and then, like, with women's working at heights, food safety. So with that, we don't necessarily teach them, but we kind of put the programs together to offer to our clients. Well, it builds up confidence. These are very short-term programs. We also partner up with iSisters, it's another non-profit organization, and their mandate is to increase the technological skills of women. And so then we partner up with, let's say, ESDC, and so they might come in and do a job fair presentation, and back in the fall they hired four of our graduates from iSisters. And then we did a landscaping program last summer, and we partnered up with Habitat for Humanity, and so they were able to spend a day or two building a home and using the skills that they learned in the landscaping program. When I first started, there wasn't as much, I guess, any cultural inclusion in the program. So we've been trying to incorporate, like, elders, or with iSisters, have a side project within that program, whether it's beading or yearning making and just kind of reconnecting, we always try and offer country food. It's very hard to get, especially if you live outside of Inuit Nunangat, and country food is an important part of our culture. So just at iSisters we had frozen caribou, frozen fish, and it was delicacy. So it was good, and country food is so food to us. So there's other programs at TI that may offer elements, and so being in an urban center, that's all really what we could do is just provide elements. And so our community-wide projects include like apple picking, strawberry picking, sugar bush. So it provides an opportunity to be in a more green space. The apple picking and strawberry picking kind of mimics the harvesting that we would do back home with berry picking and stuff. So we do elements, and then one of the youth programs, they just came back from Barclay, and so they take a bunch of teenagers, and I think it's West, and they do some outdoor activities, leadership training, and it's not necessarily like the traditional on-the-land programming, but there's elements of it. Those programs that I just mentioned, they're very, very popular, and so I think that just kind of illustrates how important it is to provide elements of our culture in an urban setting. We have assets. I've mentioned like we've done, it's all skills-based training. We do resume workshops. We do career cruising workshops. We try and partner up with other employers to come in. We call it a job fair, but it's really like an information session, and any time a client goes through one of our programs, then they make an appointment with one of our counselors, and then they update their resume. We have three locations at TI, so our employment counselors will go to, as our locations, we're pretty in the West End, and a lot of our clients live in Invenie or in the East End, so they'll go on Friday afternoons to ours of our location and provide one-on-one kind of employment counseling they'll reach. With some of them signing up for a program is success. Completing a program is a success, and sometimes, I don't know, the funder may think like employment is success, but there's various levels, I think, of success that leads up to employment. And so the different programs that we do offer at TI, I think, contribute to the different levels of success. So we might start off with a two-week program, or even just one day, like, if it's the first day, and then we might have repeat clients that will take the program over and over again, and you can see the confidence being built in them after, like, let's say, the second completion. And we've had clients that in the beginning couldn't finish a program, and then they would try it again, and maybe by the third time they've completed one of our programs. And so for us, that is a success, is that they are able to complete a program. And one of the things that we provide also is job start support. So if someone's already employed, then we will help them with anything to kind of keep them employed. And so if someone hasn't been out of work for a while, they will need help with bus transportation and will provide bus passes. And if they need specific equipment for the job, like steel door boots or non-slip shoes, we can provide stuff like that. So we're trying to create enough wraparound services to help people move into the labor market, but that's not necessarily our primal outcome. We just want people to be comfortable, to be confident. And then when they are ready to go into the labor force, then we want to provide them the supports for the entry into the labor market to be successful. To me, hearing the people on the second floor laugh at lunch break, and they're eating country food, and they're enjoying their space here when they recommend certain programs to their friends and family. We communicate our programs on social media, and so you can always tell a popular program with the reshares. But for us, with certain programs, we do get 100% completionary just because they're geared for success. You might know when to roll it out, or the length of time. Sometimes program length could play a factor in completion rates too. It's just knowing our clientele. Most of our programs will come with a certification of some sort, whether it is like women's or working at high aids or forklift training. With iSisters, we do have a higher succession in going into administrative fields. And so I think people see that, and even though they might not realize what their outcome is after the program, I think they certainly become more confident. And they use our employment counselors a little bit more after that, because their interest is peaked entering into the labor force. With the assets program, since I started in this role, we have had one year extensions. So it's been very hard to plan. And then we've also had influx of money at the very end of, let's say, a fiscal year. So it's very hard to be strategic in our programming. What I would like to do is have a progression. So if it starts with iSisters, then the next step would be something more about the receptionist field, because iSisters is just introduction to Microsoft Outlook and Word. So I wanted to do a progression, but because of our current financial situation, I can't necessarily plan how I'd like to plan. And currently we're in a 10-year agreement, but the money is still not available to TI. We do have an evaluation form at the end. And so it asks them about what they liked about the program and so different aspects. So about the location, because sometimes it's here, sometimes it's at another location, like it might be at our contractor's location, or it could be at Sabard or 604 Lurie. But then we also provide hospitality, so we always ask about that. And then we ask about questions about, I guess, course content. And then at the end we always ask what other fields or what other programs would they like to see. And so when we get more money or if we get more money, that's something that I would like to develop, because we've received a lot of feedback about Inuktitu Keyboarding, and that's something I would love to offer. But it depends on finances. It's easy to install on our computers, and I have it on my computer, but it's just knowing where the syllabics is because one letter could mean two or three syllabics. So yeah, I think that would be a fun course to offer. We are lucky because our current funder, ESDC, since I started we've been able to carry forward whatever money that we didn't spend and that's usually because we get an influx of money in, let's say, February. So it's unrealistic for us to develop programs and then deliver them by March 31. So they've been very flexible in terms of letting us provide them a timeline of how we want to deliver the programs. Currently, in this 10-year strategy, because it's now from assets to ICESTS because it's Aboriginal to Indigenous, it's distribution-based. So all First Nations, there's a First Nations stream, MET stream, an Inuit stream, and urban unaffiliated. And currently TI is with the Inuit stream, and so it's just navigating through those kind of tables to kind of voice that urban Inuit require a lot of support and financial support. And I think it's close to 40% of Inuit or people say, or Inuit reside outside of Inuit Nunangat. So they live in urban centers or in centers outside of Inuit Nunangat, which is Inuvialu region, Nunavut, Nunavik, and Nunatzebu. So it's just trying to, because this is a different approach of funding allocation. So it's difficult trying to communicate to your northern counterparts the struggles that urban Inuit face. I think it's a spectrum. I think at the very least, it should be, because I went to high school a long time ago and I didn't even learn anything about our north about Indigenous peoples. It wasn't until I went to university and it was a part of my elective. And so I think that it should be part of the curriculum and it should be from Indigenous perspectives. And now looking back at what I have learned in high school and university, everything is from the explorer's viewpoint. And there's nothing from whether it's First Nations, like their viewpoint of when settlers came or explorers came. I think that we're at that emerging change, I think, in the educational system. There's an Inuit post-secondary school here in Ottawa, Nunavik, and I've never attended, but I have many friends that have. And it's a place where you really get to learn your land claims. You learn about Inuit history. They gain so much confidence through performing. And I think it's a valuable tool on how to teach. Because they're really teaching history, but through Indigenous lands or Inuit lands. And I think the move towards that would be what I would consider Indigenous education. I would love to see for Inuit and the way I view how Inuit learn in the past is through observation, through respect to watching your elders, especially with hunting and stuff. But I also recognize that not everyone can learn that way. Just like, you know, some people have more visual audio. They need to write it down. So I recognize that not every Indigenous person would appreciate Indigenous indigenizing education, right? Like it all depends, right? So it could be like learning the outdoor space, or it could be, right? Or it could be talking about the biology aspect of when you're harvesting or hunting and it's a wide spectrum. But I think we are at that emerging level of approaching education in a more kind of multi-dimensional way. A lot of, you know, in Inuit, I'm not fluent. I know enough to get around and I understand more than I speak. And I think that part is, like, just confidence. But it is very important. And if you're here on a day where there's programming, then you hear a lot of Inuktitut and laughing. And so I think it's very important. And we have Inuktitut speaking staff here at the employment center. So if anyone requires assistance in Inuktitut, then we're able to assist them. So I was just at Literacy Essential Skills and Literacy kind of workshop for Indigenous learners and just talking about literacy. And then I just had to say, first of all, just to clarify, you guys are talking about it in English. Like you're not talking about literacy in Indigenous languages, which is also very important because, you know, I think people get, or some people get trapped into, you know, they're not completely fluent in English and they're not completely fluent in Inuktitut. So it's hard and if you're not proficient in either, then I think the confidence level goes down. So even if we're providing Inuktitut, let's say, keyboarding and, in a sense, kind of Inuktitut language at the same time, then even though it's not the working language of Ottawa, I think the byproduct of that would be perhaps stronger English skills as well, right? So I think Inuktitut is very important to any program that we offer at TI and we also have, like, our languages advisor and we have Inuktitut Word of the Day that gets sent out to everyone because not everyone speaks Inuktitut and not everyone here at TI is Inuk. So, and it's also a good reminder because I think even if you do speak Inuktitut, it's a good reminder that we are placing, you know, importance on Inuktitut in Ottawa. Well, TI is trying to secure PEE, so post-secondary student support program funding. Currently, Inuit students that reside in Ottawa, they have to apply to Mississauga New Credit First Nation to get funding. And over many years, TI has been requesting to INAC or ISC as Indigenous Services Canada for the transfer of the funds because we're an Inuit organization. We are invested in our community and we want our community to succeed and not saying that Mississauga New Credit First Nation doesn't, but we would put more emphasis on outreach and making sure our Inuit students are aware of all the possible funding opportunities. Even though I don't have the PEE-TRABELUS-PEE funding yet, I secured a scholarship with the Canadian Federation of University Women, the Canada chapter. And to my knowledge, it was the first kind of scholarship that was dedicated to an urban Inuk woman. And that kind of spun off into like now I have a listserv for post-secondary Inuit students that are looking for funding and I send them. It's about like over 50 people from all over and I let them know it's up to them to kind of determine which scholarship or which funding pod they're eligible for because it doesn't matter discipline or region, I just send it out. But I will help and I have helped people with their applications. I'll send reminders for certain scholarships and Mississauga's deadline and Nunavut fans deadline and so that's what we're doing. But if and when we get this PEE-TRABELUS-PEE, I would love to see an Education Support Officer where this person would touch base with the funded students to keep the lines of communication open if there's any kind of academic support that may be needed to help them kind of navigate through just being in a post-secondary institute. You know, even though this will be urban Inuits that are accessing this program, typically they still come from small communities. And so just navigating the whole system, parents or families that have children in post-secondary schooling don't have the history of going to university or post-secondary. So it's also kind of supporting the family in terms of kind of what to expect. You know, and it depends on the institution. It might be a little bit more rigid than they're used to or it might be hard to navigate if there's no one's taking attendance in the class. It's just navigating all those kind of situations that Inuits at post-secondary institutions may face. I want to ideally fund them appropriately. You know, I don't want them to worry about how to feed their family. A lot of our students, they might have dependents. You know, a lot of them might have children before going to post-secondary. And so I want to be able to support them fully. It's such a barrier that it would be easy for someone to say, I'm going to quit because it's hard to see past that hump. Like it's just, you know, it could be four years of just struggle. And then at the end, you're graduated, you have a job. You can, you know, like, but I don't want it to be such a struggle. I was a parent too at school, so I know the struggle. Even though it was very first nations based, I went to the Indigenous Centre a lot. And I went there to study. It was, even though it wasn't in the need, I still felt some sort of connection. Like I felt like culturally safe. So, and that's another role for the Education Support Officer is to really encourage students to use their Indigenous resource centres at the post-secondary institutions because you might not see an immediate benefit, but if they have a computer lab, it's printing, it's just, it feels culturally safe there. So anyway, so yeah, I used the Indigenous Centre at University of Mantua quite often. Well, I currently sit on a few Indigenous Education Councils at Algonquin University of Ottawa, Queens University. And so it is just slowly providing material. I, if there's any documents that they create, I edit through an Inuit lens and I always try to incorporate the voice in whatever documents that they produce. It could be like providing artefacts. So, you know, we've provided some seal skin, like, and some like, inuit art to some of the centres to kind of, so if inuit students do use those centres, they can see kind of themselves in the Indigenous centres. Every Friday we do, or the cultural programme, we'll host Elders Tea every Friday afternoon. And then I think Elders are used, their knowledge is captured in a lot of different aspects of the programming. Last year our human resources contracted an Inukah elder and he did a series of talks on different subjects. And so that's something that we told our HR that we'd love to see. It's not like a TED talk, but it was very informative and it was very organic. It's really interesting.