Bridging the Gap: the Work of the Ottawa Inuit Children’s Centre with school boards in Ottawa - Nancy Henry, Hazel Ootoowak & Pam Stellick

We will be delighted to present our groundbreaking work in building relationships between school boards and an Inuit community agency. Our relationships are grounded in time, respect, and listening. All of our work is for the benefit of the Inuit students in grades jk - 12 in the Ottawa area. Using engaging photos, we will describe the variety of connections made by the Ottawa Inuit Children’s Centre with school boards in Ottawa. These include cultural presentations for all grades, staff cultural sensitivity training, and cultural supports for Inuit students. We will show the impact on all students, the impact on Inuit students and families, and the impact on staff. We will consider the impact of the relationship building between the Centre and the school board over time. From our personal experiences, we will share best practices for agencies for working with school boards, and vice versa.