Working together for a better Aboriginal Edmonton

Participants in the Urban Aboriginal Dialogue Executive Forum, held Nov. 21, 2005 in Edmonton, have set out to identify opportunities for the city and the Aboriginal community to work together in new ways.

The full day of presentations and relationship building brought together a wide range of people from different sectors.

The forum provided opportunities for Aboriginal executive-level staff and senior managers of Aboriginal agencies, organizations and businesses, as well as executive-level staff and senior managers of the three orders of government, local authorities, business and other organizations, to participate in small group sessions to discuss the key themes of building stronger relationships.
The groups reported back and exchanged ideas to identify other strategies that will contribute to effective ways of working together in Aboriginal Edmonton.

The forum was designed to generate understanding and set priorities that will support the City of Edmonton's hiring and retention of Aboriginal staff. The discussions also focused on improving delivery of its mandated services to Aboriginal people in the city.

The purpose of the dialogue process is to achieve greater clarity on the priorities of First Nations, Metis, Inuit and non-status urban Aboriginal people.

Presenters and facilitators such as Bob Barrett of Western Management Consultants, Mel Benson, president of Mel E. Benson Management Services Inc./Tenax Energy Inc., Wayne Helgason, executive director of the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg and City of Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel spoke about why collaboration is necessary. They also spoke about finding new ways to connect and change the approach of municipal government toward dealing with Aboriginal citizens.

Sonja Willier, chair of the Edmonton Aboriginal Urban Affairs Committee (EAUAC), and Mike Kroening, manager of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion for the City of Edmonton, clarified elements of the Edmonton Urban Aboriginal Dialogue Process (EUAD). This is an Aboriginal led, inclusive initiative that is facilitating discussions with and among urban Aboriginal people in order to achieve clarity on the priorities of Aboriginal people.

According to Kroening, the executive forum is intending to bring together various Aboriginal community leaders to talk about new ways of working together on priorities identified by the Aboriginal community.

"What we've been doing in the accord initiative over the last couple of months is having open houses and talking circles where the Aboriginal public has been encouraged to come in and provide their views on a number of things, including what the key issues and priorities are," said Kroening. "We've had talking circles, which have invited front line service delivery staff in Aboriginal organizations to give their perspective."

Kroening said there have been four talking circles geared to women's issues, Elders and the disabled, street issues and youth issues. Through these open houses and talking circles and this executive forum, Kroening hopes to have a "fairly rounded picture of the issues as urban Aboriginal people see them."

"In the New Year we intend to have a very inclusive process with the community and with the stakeholders who are willing to put their resources forward to figure out new ways of working on the priorities," said Kroening.

Participants of the open houses, talking circles and executive forum completed a workbook, which will be reviewed by the EAUAC and the City of Edmonton.

It's stated on the city Web site at www.edmonton.ca, the full report of the Urban Aboriginal Dialogue process, Your City, Your Voice Report, is being prepared by Dan Martel of Four Winds and Associates. This report will include a summary of the discussions held in the open houses, talking circles and executive forum and will be available in late February.