RESPECT Program (Summer 2024)

Prior to registering for the program, please read all the information on this page.

The RESPECT program is designed to teach cultural safety and anti-racism for all employees at SFU with a focus on the implications of such skills for engaging with Indigenous faculty, staff and students and engaging in reconciliation as an institution more generally.

The RESPECT program is a response to the Aboriginal Reconciliation Council's (ARC) Recommendation in Walk This Path With Us, Call 7: Develop intervention programs teaching culturally safety and anti-racism for all employees at SFU.

The RESPECT Working Circle developed this program with the following aims in our minds and hearts:

• Create an understanding of how to build respectful and sustainable relationships with the host nations of SFU to ensure their knowledges, languages, cultures, and protocols are honoured by SFU employees.
• Build capacity of SFU employees understanding of Indigenous Peoples' past, present, and future.
• Ensure all SFU employees take up their individual responsibility to reconciliation through the collective work of decolonization and Indigenization.
• Foster and sustain a culture of life long (un)learning and respect for SFU employees.
• ‘Enhance’ ongoing professional development in the areas of cultural safety, decolonization, and Indigenization for SFU employees at all three campuses.

The RESPECT program is a hybrid learning model that combines some self-study and personal reflection online, with online discussion and periodic in person meetings. The program is designed in four integrated learning bundles. Each learning bundle entails some self-study and online work that will inform a culminating in person meeting.

Program Commitment:

The RESPECT program is a hybrid learning model that combines some self-study and personal reflection online, with online discussion and periodic in person meetings. The program is designed in four integrated learning bundles. Each learning bundle entails some self-study and online work that will inform a culminating in person meeting.

This program runs from May 13th* to July 22, 2024 for a total of 11 weeks. Participants should expect to spend a minimum of a half day a week on this course for the duration of the program. This includes synchronous and asynchronous learning; discussions and assignments, and five mandatory meetings (two in-person and three virtual). This timeline acknowledges the opportunity to give intentional time into the workday for learning with other RESPECT participants along with completing independent study and reflection journals and assignments.

In addition to self-paced online learning through Canvas, the following are the dates for the mandatory meetings:

• Thursday, May 23rd from 1:30 to 4:30pm, Surrey E-building room 2030
• Thursday, June 6 from 1:30 to 3:30pm, virtual (Zoom)
• Thursday, June 20 from 1:30 to 3:30pm, virtual (Zoom)
• Thursday, July 11 from 1:30 to 3:30pm, virtual (Zoom)
• Thursday, July 25 from 1:30 to 4:30pm, Surrey E-building room 2030

Participants should note these dates when registering for the program and are expected to attend all meetings.

*Note that the program launches with access to the Canvas course on May 13th and the first in-person meet-up following on May 23rd. Registration for the Summer Cohort will remain open until Wednesday, May 22nd 2024.

Facilitators:

The Summer RESPECT program will be facilitated by Skel7áw̓s, Naomi Narcisse and Bryan Myles.

• Skel7áw̓s, Naomi is dedicated to strengthening inclusive, equitable, spaces, and passionate about sharing decolonizing practices in higher education environments. Her St'át'imc name is Skel7áw̓s and it means ‘leader/education’. Skel7áw̓s, Naomi is a proud Nicola Valley Institute of Technology (NVIT), Simon Fraser University (SFU), & University of British Columbia (UBC) Alumni. She has over 10 years of experience working in Indigenous higher education. Skel7áw̓s, Naomi is a current PhD student at UBC within the Faculty of Education Studies. She completed her MEd in Educational Administration & Leadership at UBC & NVIT in 2021, Bachelor of Arts degree at SFU, and Associate of Arts at NVIT. She is learning St'at'imc language from her language authorities, which is being accredited through NVIT (BC’s sole Indigenous Public Post Secondary school).
• Bryan Myles is a settler scholar from Treaty 4 territory in Southern Saskatchewan, and has been living as an uninvited guest on Coast Salish territory since 2009. He has been teaching in SFU’s Department of Indigenous Studies since 2018, where he teaches Introductory courses, and courses on Indigenous belongings and cultural heritage stewardship. Bryan has also worked at SFU’s Bill Reid Centre since 2009. He was the center’s Interim Director from 2014 to 2018, and currently holds the position of Associate Director.