Women’s organization works to meet health, professional needs

Ten years ago, a group of Aboriginal women gathered and formed the Aboriginal Women’s Professional Association.
“(They) had a visioning session, talking about what’s needed, based on their own experiences and those of their extended families, and what kinds of programs were needed,” said Executive Director Jori Hunter.

Today, the AWPA is 400-plus members strong.  The motto of the organization, which is “trained, employed and self-sustaining,” demonstrates the attempt to assist wherever the AWPA can.
 “Our main focus is definitely employment and those economic issues that are related,” said Hunter.

 “It’s our mission to have Aboriginal women participate fully in the community, through employment, leadership and education and with a strong foundation in their culture and in their traditions,” she added. “That’s really the formula that we use when developing programming for them, to make sure that it has a strong cultural and traditional component and we always look at how we can better give women leverage in careers.”

Much of AWPA’s programming focuses on wellness and health. The Step of Health is one example, where the group has challenged women in the City of Edmonton to get active.

“We’re providing the training and the support for that, with a physical fitness activity a couple of times a week,” said Hunter.
Zumba classes have proven to be so popular, especially with younger women, that they have been expanded from one night to two nights a week.

“And we are also running a Crafting for Small Business program and speaker events in the leased building.” The programs are funded by one-time lifetime membership fees as well as by support from CBC, Alberta Health, United Way, Urban Aboriginal Strategy and others.

Courses are offered as the AWPA finds they are required, from entry-level computer courses to business workshops, helping future entrepreneurs learn where to find the resources to get started and the expectations.

Mentoring occurs where successful women interact with students and relationships are built.

“More recently we have offered training around leadership, such as adapting current circumstances towards future growth,” she said. “We really try to provide programming that will really make a difference in a woman’s life. It helps professionally, but also personally in her own growth.”

Crossroads events have been held where the members meet with women of the Jewish faith, teaching each other about the cultural specifics, such as the meaning of the Jewish Sabbath, and in turn, the visitors were engaged in a tipi camp experience.

“We had a sweat lodge built and they got a good grounding in some of our practices,” Hunter said, adding that a similar experience was enjoyed last year with women of the Somali community.  “When women get together and start sharing, we find so many similarities.”