Janine Landry speaks with Oliver Rusnak about the Indigenous Student Counsellor program with the Thunder Bay Catholic District School board. This program is geared specifically to Indigenous students in their schools. There is one full-time counsellor at each high school, and at the three senior elementary schools. They act as advocates for Indigenous students, support them with their academics, family life, cultural life, post-secondary requirements and much more. As part of the program there is a cultural room that provides students a comfortable space to hang-out. Some of the activities the counsellors provide are things like days out on the land, drumming, beading, painting, attending workshops and career fairs, after-school programs and so much more.
This program staff work full time in the schools and sometimes run after-school programs as well. The counsellors currently work with students from grades 7-12.
https://www.tbcschools.ca/education/first-nation-metis-inuit