Bulletin Board
Vol 5, Dec. 19 ‘08
CCP News The Gwa’sala-’Nakwaxda’xw Comprehensive Community Plan “Working Together for a Better Community”
University of Victoria Regional Information Session
Come find out what Uvic offers to aboriginal students! Jan. 15 Wakas Hall Everyone Welcome
Next CCP Advisory Committee (gal%@st|eyu) meeting:
Monday, January 19 5:00 pm Elders’ Centre
Inside:
If you can’t make it to a meeting but want to get involved, call 902-2306 to talk to Jessie!
Community Hero! What’s Ahead in ‘09 Staff Profile: Ted
Gilakasla
H
appy Holidays everyone! I hope you all get a chance to visit with family, eat lots of goodies and relax over the next couple of weeks.
This will be the last CCP News until the new year, so it's extra long with a couple of new things added- a staff profile, which I'm hoping to do for a different staff member in each newsletter, to help the community get to know the staff a bit better, plus a 'community hero' section where we recognize someone in the community who is a hero. There are also some updates from the last few CCP meetings, lots of beautiful pictures, and a look ahead at what CCP stuff is coming up in 2009
Jessie H. CCP Research Coordinator
Contents 2 - Hero & Advisory Committee 3 - Staff Profile 4 - What You Said 5&6 - Photo Album
7 - What’s Ahead? 8 - Community Visioning 9 - Meeting Schedule 10 - Greeting
iHappy i Holidays
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I hope you have enjoyed reading these newsletters over the last few months. Please feel free to write articles or comments and bring them to me in the band office to include in the next one! Merry Christmas,
Y
merry christmas
Gwa’sala-’Nakwaxda’xw First Nation Comprehensive Community Planning
And have a happy new year!
Phone: (250) 902-2306 ~ Fax: (250) 949-7402 E-mail: ccp@gwanak.info
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2009 Meeting Schedule Jan. 12: Culture Jan. 15: UVic Info session Jan. 19: Advisory Committee (A.C.) Jan. 26: Infrastructure Feb. 2: A.C. Feb. 9: Health Feb. 16: Economy Feb. 23: Governance Mar. 2: Education Mar. 9: A.C. Mar. 16: Lands & Resources Mar. 17-20: Community Visioning Mar. 23: A.C. Mar. 30: Infrastructure Apr. 6: A.C. Apr. 20: Health Apr. 27: Social Issues May 4: Culture May 11: A.C. May 25: Governance Jun. 1: Education Please note that this Jun. 15: A.C. Jun. 17: Community Dinner & Update schedule may change. Jul. 13: A.C. It is provided here to Aug. 10: A.C. Sept. 14: A.C. help you set aside Sept. 21: A.C. time to come to the Sept. 24: Community Dinner & Update CCP meetings. Oct. 19: A.C. Nov. 9: A.C. Nov. 16: A.C. Nov. 19: Community Dinner, present final CCP Dec. 14: A.C.
There will be CCP events besides these meetings, so stay tuned for notices and announcements about other events.
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Community Hero The CCP Advisory Committee would like to recognize
Dakota Johnny
as a community hero.
Dakota, community members are very impressed by your attitude and by the way you stuck with the Alkali Lake workshop for the whole time they were up here. You should be very proud of yourself. Keep up the good work in everything that you do!
Advisory Committee
The Advisory Committee is a group of community members that help direct the CCP and help staff figure out what to do to meet the needs of the community. Anyone in the community can join the advisory committee.
Some of the regular members of the committee are: Irene Sheard, John King Sr., Mary V. Rufus, Alfred Rufus, Sarah Walkus, Richard Charlie, Bob Swain, Cathy Swain, Carol Ellingson, Dodie Rufus, Rita Anderson, Cara Anderson and Loni Anderson, plus many others who give up some of their precious free time to come to these valuable meetings. If you think there is something that we should be doing for our CCP, the advisory committee is the place to share those ideas and make things happen for our community!
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Staff Profile: Ted Stevens
Autumn '09: The draft CCP will be presented to the community, and everyone will get a chance to take a look at it, suggest changes, and eventually approve it.
Forestry Coordinator
Winter '09: Time to celebrate! Hopefully by December we will have a
T
completed CCP, and then it is up to the whole community and all of the staff to make sure that it is used to make our community a better place for all of us!
ed grew up in Port Alberni. He graduated from UBC and then became a Registered Professional Forester (RPF) and an Applied Science Technologist (AScT) in forest engineering. He worked in industry, government, consulting and contracting, including logging and road building, before coming to the Gwa’sala’Nakwaxda’xw First Nation in January 200. Ted’s job is to deal with all forestry-related activities that the band is a part of, including logging companies that are working in our traditional territories. He also does lands & resource planning, like participating in the Central Coast Lands and Resources Management Plan (CCLRMP). He also manages our Replaceable Forest Licence (RFL) and is working on getting a community Woodlot Licence. He also helps to set up short-term jobs for band members doing things like archaeology surveys, silviculture work, etc. He is also available to talk to community members about forest policy, forest tenures, and other forestry-related things. If you have questions for Ted, you can reach him at 949-8393 or forestry@gwanak.info.
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2010 and beyond: The work plans will be used by staff to make changes to our community. We will also try to get funding to hire people to do new projects as part of the CCP. The CCP will help new council members and new staff members to know what the community’s priorities and needs are. If you want to, the advisory committee and other meetings could keep going on for as long as people want to keep getting together to talk about the issues.
What is a staff profile for? It’s important that community members understand who our band’s staff are and what they do. Hopefully these profiles will help you get to know the staff better, and feel more comfortable talking to them about your ideas, concerns and thoughts. (If you are a staff member and want to be profiled, call 902-2306)
What is ‘Community Visioning?’ Community visioning is when you think and talk about how you want your community to be. By including community visioning as part of our CCP, we will have a chance to talk about the following things:
What makes us Gwa'sala-'Nakwaxda'xw? What is it about us that is unique? What are the values that we believe in? What is important to us as a community, not just as individuals?
Where do we want to be in a year? 10 years? 100 years? What kind of community do we want to create for our future generations?
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What’s Ahead? A Look at the CCP in 2009 January to June: During these months there will be a CCP meeting (either a planning meeting or an advisory committee meeting) almost every Monday, at 5 pm at the elder's centre. At these meetings you will share your thoughts & ideas about all kinds of things, and we will talk about the changes we want to see in our community. During this time we will also talk about what changes are the most important, which ones need to happen right away and which ones we can work on over a long period of time. We will also work on 'community visioning' over the Spring. [See next page]
May to August: During the summer, staff will make work plans for making the changes that the community needs. These work plans will say what needs to happen, who will do it, how long it will take, and how we will keep track of progress. There will be work plans for many different changes for each of the eight areas in the CCP (education, culture, governance etc.) The advisory committee and many staff members will take a look at the plans as they are created, and give feedback about how to improve them. Then the plans will all be put together as our draft 'Comprehensive Community Plan', along with the community vision that you create.
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What You Said: Economic Issues
Biggest Issue:
Unemployment Ideas for Band-Owned Businesses:
Resort/hotel Gas station Restaurant Apartments
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ost people would like to work in our community, as teachers, counselors, hairdressers, entrepeneurs, carpenters etc.
On December 8, we packed the elder's centre with 61 people for a CCP meeting about 'Economic Issues'. With 24 kids there, and one babysitter, it was a crazy at times, but everyone helped the meeting to go smoothly and many people shared their thoughts, concerns and ideas. Here are some of the things that you said:
“I think that there needs to be programs to employ our people we need to employ ourselves rather than people outside our community also to train our people to do the jobs.” “Job training, education, give our people reason to get up in the morning...” “Creation of our own businesses ON our RESERVE, when our people work at camp it gets quite stressful for both the worker and their family left here in our rez.”
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Photo Album
Snow Day Clockwise from far left: 1. Rey Henderson and his sled 2. Veronica Johnny sporting a santa hat 3. A bright sunrise
G-N Traditional Territories Nov ‘08
Clockwise from top left:
From top left:
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1. Norman, Micheal, Jessie & Rey taking a break 2. Tyrese washing counters 3. Isaiah helping to make spaghetti
Dec. 1 Advisory Committee Meeting Helpers
1. Willie Walkus, Colleen Hemphill and Dave Danyluk 2. Chief Paddy Walkus, James Walkus, Willie Walkus, Tom Henderson Sr. and Tanya Wright mapping out the trip 3. A sword fern at tigwexsti 4. Tom at tigwexsti, with the Ocean Joye behind him 5. Rough water crossing over to the mainland 6. Rocks’ reflection on the water looks like a totem pole
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