Join us for a special Adler University Common Hour featuring a presentation in support of Orange Shirt Day by the Indian Residental School Survivors Society (IRSSS)
3:00 - 4:00 pm - Presentation on the History and Impacts of the Residential School System from Wesley Scott, IRSSS
About IRSSS
The Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS) is a provincial organization with a twenty year history of providing services to Indian Residential School Survivors.
The Indian Residential School Survivors Society began in 1994 as a working committee of the First Nations Summit. We were known as the Residential School Project, housed out of and as a part of the BC First Nations Summit. The work was primarily to assist Survivors with the litigation process pertaining to residential school abuses. In the more recent years the work has expanded to include assisting the descendants of Survivors and Community education measures (Aboriginal & Non-Aboriginal).
As of March 2002 we formally became the Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS). The IRSSS is governed by an elected Board of Directors from six regions of BC; the board of directors are also survivors or intergenerational survivors of residential school. The BOD is responsible for the funding of the organization and delegates its day-to-day duties to the Executive Director, Cindy Tom-Lindley. The Executive Director is hired by the board of directors and hold full responsibility for the implementation of Board initiatives and policies as well as hiring staff. The board is supported by a staff of 20 professionals and 16 Elders Cultural Support, most of whom are themselves either Indian residential school survivors or inter-generational survivors.
About Wesley Scott
Title: Workshop Coordinator
Bio: Greetings! My name is Wesley Scott and I am a counsellor and support worker with the Indian Residential School Survivors Society. I have been with IRSSS for over three years providing emotional support, trauma counselling, and self-care workshops to Survivors and Intergenerational Survivors of all ages. My professional background is in Mental Health and Addictions as well as Street Community Outreach. I grew up in Victoria, B.C. and I spend my free time performing as an independent songwriter and musician.
