Kiitigaan Aski

Kiitigaan Aski (Food Sovereignty) Lead – Ref #2024-068

Job Summary:

Approaches to Community Wellbeing (ACW) is a regional resource offering advocacy and public health programs and services to 31 First Nations communities across Kiiwetinoong. ACW also supports communities in the development, implementation, and evaluation of their own Approaches to Community Wellbeing. The Healthy Living section includes the Preventing Chronic Diseases (PCD) team, which looks at promoting mental wellness and ways of living well, such as through food sovereignty and security, nutrition, mental health teachings, and active living. The PCD team helps to support practices that identify early signs of diseases like diabetes and cancer (i.e., screening). The PCD team also envisions a role in advocating for environments that support communities on their journeys of mino-biimadiziwin (e.g., land and water stewardship) and addressing social determinants of health.

The Kiitigaan Aski (Food Sovereignty) Lead works collaboratively with the Preventing Chronic Diseases team to support communities with projects, programs, and services that make foods from both the land and in stores more accessible. They will identify and lead new areas of work for SLFNHA to help reduce barriers to harvesting and distributing foods from the land in communities and passing knowledge of these foodways on to youth and young adults.

The Kiitigaan Aski (Food Sovereignty) Lead is directly accountable to the Preventing Chronic Diseases Manager.

This is a term position for one (1) year.

Qualifications:

• Persons of First Nations ancestry will be given preference (OHRC, Part II, Special Employment)
• Minimum of 3 years work experience in First Nations communities in lands and resources, food systems, health and wellness, education, or related fields.
• Bachelor’s degree in Indigenous, environmental, or political studies, or a health-related field.
• Ability to speak in an Ojibwe, Oji-Cree, and/or Cree dialect as well as English is an asset.
• Experience fishing, hunting, and/or trapping animals, or growing and/or harvesting plants and medicines is an asset.
• Knowledge of cultural teachings and values of First Nations communities in the Sioux Lookout area.
• Knowledge of the ways plants, animals, and fungi are connected to wellbeing.
• Knowledge of a range of topics related to harvesting and sharing foods from the land, Indigenous food systems and sovereignty, and food security.
• Knowledge of how racism and colonial policies and trauma impact wellbeing, food ways, and land use among First Nations communities.
• Ability to effectively plan and manage projects using culturally safe and trauma-informed approaches.
• Excellent communication and leadership skills to facilitate group dialogue and program development.
• Excellent computer, written, and oral communication, and assessment skills.
• Excellent planning, organizational, problem solving, and decision-making skills.
• Professional integrity and the ability to maintain confidentiality is essential.
• Ability to travel required.
• A valid Ontario G driver’s license.
• Ability to perform the requirements of the position on a regular basis.

Roles and Responsibilities:

1. When invited, support community approaches (e.g., ways of life, ceremony, projects, programs, and services) to food sovereignty and food security by sharing knowledge and helping gather resources, coordinate work, write proposals, and access funding.
2. Collaboratively plan, implement, and evaluate projects that support families and leaders in communities with equipment for growing, harvesting, preparing, and preserving foods from the land.
3. Build relationships with and identify ways to support community members, leaders, and partners (e.g., Tribal Councils, PTOs, and other organizations) who are sharing traditional food knowledge and making foods from the land and stores easier to access in communities.
4. Develop a visual map of funding sources currently available to community members and leaders related to each of the pillars of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation Food Strategy; identify gaps and opportunities to improve funding approaches.
5. Identify new roles and actions (e.g., advocacy for change to provincial and federal policy/law) for SLFNHA to consider based on community member knowledge, research, the Nishnawbe Aski Nation Food Strategy, and the SLFNHA Diabetes Strategy.
6. Organize and host gatherings for community members and workers and create spaces for knowledge sharing, supporting one another, and celebration.
7. Plan and facilitate, or support community workers facilitating, knowledge sharing activities on foods from the land and related topics.
8. Develop information resources with and for community members and workers.
9. Participate in community outreach activities or committees and working groups as necessary.
10. Work closely with the Preventing Chronic Diseases team and Manager, and other staff within ACW (i.e., Policy Analyst), and SLFNHA to accomplish these responsibilities.
11. Other duties as assigned by Manager.

Closing Date: Open until filled