Listuguj Education, Training & Employment (LETE) is close to wrapping up the first round of our governance and high school engagements. We are grateful for all the community input received so far and like to hear from more of you!
For its governance work, LETE secured the services of the Firelight Group, an Indigenous-owned consulting group that works with Indigenous and local communities in Canada. They have assisted the LETE Governance team to conduct a community-wide survey (click here to hear more about the survey we conducted in December) and create a community engagement guide. The purpose of the engagements was to hear from community about education governance and what we’d like to see in a community-based Mi’gmaq high school.
This past March, we began our in-person engagements to hear from community. We have hosted four community-wide focus groups so far (one for youth, three for community members of all ages). To improve the LETE governance structure, we also reached several groups within LETE, such as teachers, support staff, administrators, and managers. Additionally, to supplement this data, we interviewed community members interested in a deeper dive into the questions.
We reached out to our youth at the Listuguj Career and Trades Fair, which took place at Alaqsite’w Gitpu School on April 29. Students recorded their responses to the engagement questions for a chance to win prizes. We’re also coordinating one more focus group for youth to attend online. Stay tuned for more details!
We are Stepping Up our Communications
Throughout this round of engagements, some community members expressed that they were not aware of all LETE’s services and the current governance structure. With that in mind, we are vamping up our communications to include more information about what services we provide to you. We are committed to finding new ways to inform the community of all our initiatives, whether through growing our social media presence or simply being more visible throughout the community.
How to Get Involved
Please reach out to us if you’d like to get involved. We can join you and/or your family wherever you feel comfortable. For more information about creating your own focus group, you can reach out to Kammy Vicaire at contact@lete.listuguj.ca or 418-788-2248.
Here are a few examples of questions we’d like additional feedback on:
What needs to be in place to ensure the success of your children or Listuguj youth more broadly? What needs to be in place to assure the quality of education?
Is it important that Listuguj high school education be affiliated or aligned with a provincial education system? Why or why not?
How can or should an education system best support culture, identity, and language transmission and revitalization while also ensuring academic success?
How can Mi’gmaq ways of knowing and doing be foundational to the governance of education in Listuguj?
Can you share Mi’gmaw worldviews, principles, values, and protocols that could apply in the context of governance and education?
We are in the research and planning stages of this education governance initiative. We will be returning to the community with a summary report of our initial findings and asking for further feedback. We will need the community’s full support to bring this project to life. It’s time to get involved!