‘Get a return on your investment’ grad tells her nation

Carissa Tom recently applied for a job in the Sliammon First Nation (SFN) community. Although invited for an interview, she was not successful. She then sat down and wrote a letter that addresses challenges faced by many people throughout the Nautsumawt Tribal Council communities. The lengthy letter appeared in SFN’s newsletter Neh Motl. Carissa also sent it to Klahowya. The following are excerpts.

Since it is likely that SFN has invested significant financial resources in its citizens who pursue post-secondary studies, it would be wise for SFN to hire those graduates so that we are able to see a return on this investment. It is important to note that not gaining a return on this kind of financial and resource investment is affecting the financial bottom line of SFN.

It was my hope that completing my education and developing myself professionally, that I would be able to make a meaningful contribution to SFN, while learning about my culture and traditions, while being able to provide for my young family at the same time.

More support needed

While SFN and its programs have supported me with my endeavors and educational goals, I feel that more support is needed for recent university graduates and youth who ‘lack experience’ in their field. SFN mentors our people through health, and education, with programs to initiate success and wellness, but subsequent support for SFN members is limited. Notably, by not making jobs available to our own SFN members because they ‘lack experience’.

Because of this practice, I believe we are missing out on the opportunity to build the capacity of our communities, and are, in fact, further fragmenting our society by forcing our young people to stay away for longer periods of time than is necessary to obtain a post-secondary education. I have spent the last several years working in Victoria because there were no jobs available in Sliammon.

We are wasting time, energy and resources on hiring outside of our community, including sensitivity and acculturation training. Naturally, non-SFN employees are more likely to leave Sliammon, which results in a high turnover rate of non-SFN staff, resulting in increased resources being expended to fill the vacant positions.

Mentoring members

I understand that sometimes it is not possible to fill all SFN positions with SFN members. However, I believe it is possible for SFN to develop a training/mentorship program for positions that cannot currently be filled by SFN members. My suggestion is that any regular position that is occupied by a non-SFN member should in fact be a term or contract position for a pre-determined length. During this period of contract/employment, the non-SFN worker would be required to mentor and train an SFN member for the position, with the expectation that the SFN ‘mentee’ will take over the regular position at the end of the term.

Values and Beliefs

As a youth, I have been taught and live by the traditional values of the Sliammon people, and our culture, and have worked hard both in and outside of my community to honor and live the traditional values of our people. While I hold these values very dear, it is more difficult for youth, who are at a disordered time in their lives, to hold strong in the beliefs and ways of the Sliammon people, especially when one is away attending school, and lacks the community support necessary to feel included and in touch with Sliammon values and traditions.