By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Red Deer Catholic seeing great results from First Nations support team

Feb 3, 2018 | 7:00 AM

Students and staff within Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools are seeing the positive impacts of the division’s dedicated First Nations, Métis and Inuit support team.

Tracy Meneen is the coordinator of the four-person team which began its work for Red Deer Catholic exclusively in 2015. Prior to that, there was a joint support group for both the Public and Catholic school divisions.

“Our overarching goal is to create awareness and understanding of the richness and diversity of First Nations, Métis and Inuit cultures,” Meneen says. “We do that interwoven with our Catholic Faith. The two main goals under that umbrella is cultural education and student support for our self-identified students and their families.”

There are currently more than 500 self-identified First Nations, Métis and Inuit students within Red Deer Catholic, and the support team’s job goes beyond aiding in just their education.

“Any of our teachings are done for all students in all classrooms as everybody gets to gain that better awareness and understanding of the different cultures, teachings and traditional Indigenous ways,” Meneen says. “We’re proud of that, but we do understand some families need extra support, so we provide that as well.”

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The support team also works with teachers on professional development, as well as with local agencies such as the Red Deer Native Friendship Society, the Welcoming and Inclusive Communities Network, RDC, and the Central Alberta Regional Consortium.

Meneen says a portion of the work the team does is ultimately about healing.

“We’ve seen just a huge difference in staff coming to a better understanding and beginning to work better on the path of reconciliation where everyone can come together, and work together to have a common intercultural understanding,” she adds.

Meneen and the other members of the support team –Valerie Norman, Pamela Taylor and Glenn McLeod – presented this week to the school board. The information was well received and, she said.

“They seemed really very proud and very supportive of the work being done with the team in the division,” says Meneen. “We call ourselves the support team for a reason, because we can come in and have those conversations with support staff and students as we all walk together on the path to reconciliation.”

More information on the support team is available on the RDCRS website.