Barbara Latkowski
Caledonia Courier
On April 28, about 26 individuals representing various businesses and organizations took part in Safe Harbour training hosted by the College of New Caledonia.
April Hilland, coordinator for OARH, was thrilled to be able to offer the training and with what prospects lay ahead.
Hilland, who began her new role in February, says that it’s all about finding new ways in which issues surrounding racism and hate can be addressed to help make the community safer.
“This allows us to bring resources into the community and to connect and network with businesses so that we can have these important conversations that we don’t normally have,” Hilland said.
The B.C. government, through EmbraceBC, has awarded a grant to the College of New Caledonia to continue awareness and understanding of ethnic, social, cultural, linguistic and religious diversity in Fort St. James.
The recent training brought a good mix of participants from both Fort St. James and Vanderhoof including representatives from: the National Historic Site, (Parks Canada) Petro Food & Gas, the Fort St. James Library, Work BC, Vanderhoof Community Futures and Nak’azdli Band Office.
According to Hilland, participants were very enthused and open to discuss some uncomfortable subjects but everyone worked together to discuss strategies and solutions when dealing with incidents of discrimination.
“The overall feeling in the sessions was that of understanding and celebration of diversity with participants wanting to ensure that their organizations respect, support, save and celebrate the diversity of their clients and customers they serve and to create an atmosphere of acceptance,” Hilland said.
This has now sparked interest to bring similar workshops to Fort St. James in the future.
“There is already talk of how to bring more workshops to our youth in both communities as well as reach a wider community audience,” Hilland said.
“It is my sincere with that we can use the momentum of this training to work towards expanding the number of businesses and organizations that are Safe Harbour certified to become a Safe Harbour certified community.”
For more information about Safe Harbour training, please contact: OARH Coordinator, April Hilland at the Learning Hub at: (250) 996-7078 or at: hillanda1@cnc.bc.ca