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Lead by Grand Chief Gary Merasty, seven members of the Prince Albert Grand Council along with two people from the Keewatin Career Development Corp in La Ronge are meeting with the Keewaytinook Okimakanak team in Balmertown for two days. The visitors included:

• PAGC Grand Chief Gary Merasty
• Darrell Haysom – PAGC Special Projects Coordinator
• Larry Goldade – PAGC Director of Education
• Ernie Sauve – PAGC Director of Health
• Philip Bear – Director of Education – Stanley Mission
• Vincent Hill – Special Projects Coordinator – PAGC Education
• Don Dorè – Technology Consultant – PAGC Education
• Randy Johns – Manager, KCDC
• Ted Green – e-Learning Coordinator, Northern Lights / KCDC

Click here to see some pictures from the visit

The opportunity to share best practices and lessons learned between the two councils is building a relationship that will support the development of complementary efforts in a number of different fields. Three main streams, e-health, e-learning and network development were examined on the first day of the meetings. Demonstrations and discussions were conducted with different partner First Nations and team members. Acting Grand Chief Goyce Kakegamic of Nishnawbe Aski Nation joined the group for the evening banquet.

On Thursday, both teams will gather to continue the sharing of information and experiences. A meeting between the PAGC group and the RICTA group that will be visiting Deer Lake First Nation is planned for the afternoon.

These meetings and exchanges are being supported in part by Industry Canada's First Nations SchoolNet program as a means to support the development of broadband solutions for the schools across Northern Saskatchewan.

The George Jeffrey Children's Centre has launched a $4.5 million Capital Fundraising Campaign for the construction of a new treatment centre in Thunder Bay. First Nation representatives for the Foundation committee are being sought.

Thunder Bay, ON — The George Jeffrey Children’s Centre in Thunder Bay officially launched its Foundation’s Capital Fundraising Campaign on Tuesday, March 1, 2005. At the same time, the Centre unveiled its new branding and website, as well as a list of program events scheduled for 2005 such as the famous Soap Box Derby.

The George Jeffrey Children’s Centre, which provides vital treatment services to children with physical and developmental disabilities, revealed its new image at the media conference. The re-branding and new website has been developed by local firm, Korkola Design Communications, in order to better represent and communicate the mission of the Centre.

Following the unveiling ceremony, Tom Jackson of the newly formed George Jeffrey Children’s Foundation, also be officially kicked off the Centre’s four years, $4.5million Capital Fundraising Campaign for the construction and equipping of a much needed new Centre. The proposed new Centre will be able to serve over 1000 children annually from across Northwestern Ontario.

Over 50 members of the regional community from both the business and public sectors attended the event and guest speakers included; Thunder Bay Mayor Lynne Peterson, Margie Bettiol from the Ministry of Children & Youth Services, representatives from the Federal and Provincial Members of Parliament and representatives from Matawa First Nations Management. The kick off agenda items included; presentations, guest speakers, cheque presentation, the launch of the 2005 Soap Box Derby, facility tours, and a luncheon. 

Says Eiji Tsubouchi, Executive Director of The George Jeffrey Children’s Centre; “March 1st will mark an exciting and long awaited day for all of us at the Centre, including the children. We have a dual purpose with the unveiling of our new branding and the kick off of our Foundation and its Capital Fundraising Campaign, yet they are both complementary initiatives. The results of our recent feasibility study indicated that the public did not fully understand what we do at the Centre and that our branding was not representative of the children in our care. With a great new image, we hope to better connect our Centre with the public and help them to understand the vital roles that both the Centre and these children play in our community. By the same token, this approach will allow us to demonstrate why our capital fundraising campaign is so desperately needed. Without the public’s understanding and support, we cannot hope to achieve our $4.5 million fundraising goal.”

The George Jeffrey Children’s Foundation is hoping to recruit representatives and individuals from all sectors for its committees and hopes that the regional First Nations will also participate in the campaign. Children from the communities of Bearskin Lake,  Big Trout Lake,  Cat Lake,  Deer Lake,  Fort Hope,  Fort William, Gull Bay,  Heron Bay,  Kingfisher Lake,  Neskantaga,  MacDiarmid,  Mishkeegoogemang,  North Spirit Lake,  Pikangikum,  Sandy Lake,  Wapekeka,  Webequie and  Wunnimun Lake currently attend the Centre.

Individuals who are interested in participating in the fundraising drive or serving as a committee member may contact the George Jeffrey Children’s Centre Fundraising Coordinator at: 807 767 4443.

The new Northern Ontario School of Medicine is preparing to invite medical students from southern Ontario to spend two weeks in rural and remote First Nations in June 2005. These pilot placements will help the NOSM staff and the participating First Nations determine the needs and priorities for the first year placement of NOSM students in the spring of 2006.

Two NOSM pilot project coordinators, Tom Terry and Cindy Crowe have been contracted to meet with First Nations and support the implementation of this pilot project. They are working closely with Orpah McKenzie, NOSM's Aboriginal Liaison Director to ensure the participating First Nations are ready for a successful experience during these placements.

Last week, the NOSM team consisting of Dr. Dan Hunt, Orpah McKenzie, Martha Mussico, Tom Terry and Cindy Crowe met with the Sioux Lookout Zone Health Directors to discuss this pilot project and identify possible placement sites for June 2005. That evening, they met with Keewaytinook Okimakanak staff (Penny and Brian). The next day, Tom Terry made a presentation to the Chiefs of Keewaytinook Okimakanak about the pilot project. He invited the Keewaytinook Okimakanak First Nations to participate in this pilot and showcase the telehealth services being delivered from the health centres in each of their health centres.

Orpah McKenzie, Aboriginal Liaison and Tom Terry, Pilot Project Coordinator work with Cal Kenny to set up the NOSM pilot project web site.

http://myknet.org is another Keewaytinook Okimakanak on-line service that continues to grow in popularity. The DAILY average of visits in February was 30,583 with an average of over 2.8 million hits each day. The total number of visits to this server in February was 856,349 with nearly 80 million hits occurring in this short month!

MyKnet.org is primarily made up of personal homepages created and maintained by First Nation members across northern Ontario. There are over 14,000 homepages on this server today. This on-line space is rich in the sharing of personal experiences, stories, pictures and events. Everyone helps to make it the positive learning and sharing environment that the chiefs wanted to create by making sure the content on each page is suitable for all ages of people who check out these homepages.

If anyone has any concerns about the content of any of these pages, they are invited to send an e-mail or phone any of the K-Net staff to have the offending page suspended until the offensive material is removed.

The Chiefs of Ontario office, in partnership with the Union of  Ontario Indians is hosting "A gathering for First Nations youth in Ontario"

For more information or to register contact Nathan Wright at 1-877-517-6527 or by email at nathan@coo.org

Purpose: The purpose of the Symposium is to bring together a collection of youth and enhance their ability to return to their community to influence positive change. The theme of Social Development has been selected as a result of the rising social challenges that each individual First Nation faces.

Place: Valhalla Inn - Thunder Bay, Ontario

Time: March 18, 2005 to Sunday, March 20, 2005

Accommodations: Chiefs of Ontario will be covering the cost of accommodations for each registered delegate. Once registered, the Chiefs of Ontario will arrange your accommodations at the Valhalla Inn.

Meals: The Chiefs of Ontario will be providing meals for each registered delegate. Meals provided will include Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner on Saturday, as well as Breakfast and Lunch on Sunday. Meals will be available at the Valhalla Inn.

Travel: The Chiefs of Ontario will reimburse a portion of the travel for each delegate. Travel reimbursement forms will be available upon registration. Unfortunately, due to funding constraints, Chiefs of Ontario cannot commit to reimbursing full travel costs at this time.

Age: Delegates must be between the ages of 18-29.

BE SURE AND VISIT THE CHIEFS OF ONTARIO WEBSITE for more information.

The 5th annual Northern First Nations Hockey Tournament is well on its way to being another success for everyone involved ... the hockey players, the organizers, the fans and the host community of Sioux Lookout. Tournament coordinator, Margaret Kenequanash promises another exciting week of hockey at the Sioux Lookout arena. The tournament's web site at http://firstnationshockey.ca has the schedule and the list of teams in each pool (see below).

On March 2 and 3, 2005, the chiefs from the First Nations of Deer Lake, Fort Severn, Keewaywin, McDowell Lake, North Spirit Lake and Poplar Hill met with Keewaytinook Okimakanak staff to discuss programs and services being delivered by their organization. The chiefs form the Board of Directors for Keewaytinook Okimakanak (KO). KO is a tribal council receiving annual funding support from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada for several of the core second level services delivered by the KO team.

Special guests at the meeting on the first day included Arun Dighe, Associate Regional Director and Joe Young, Financial Manager from INAC's regional office in Thunder Bay.

Click here to check out the pictures from the meeting.