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A Coffee With Laurie Hauer from The Newcomer Centre! · Coffee In The Park with Jennifer and Cam

• 0:01
  Hi, I'm Laurie, and you're listening to Coffee In The Park with Jennifer and Cam.
• 0:15
  Good morning, everybody, and welcome to another edition of Coffee In The Park with Jennifer and Cam.
• 0:19
  And we are coming to you live this morning from the Wall Coffee Roasters in the heart of beautiful downtown Acheson.
• 0:28
  So if you hear some noise in the background, coffee machines whirring, people talking, kids, no kids, no kids screaming because I think they've gone back to school, the kids.
• 0:40
  Well, after the long weekend, kids better be back in school.
• 0:43
  Well, I was going to say, yeah, and it's not that they, well, it's not those kids that were screaming, actually, it's the little kids.
• 0:49
  They get excited, they come to the coffee shop, they get all excited. They do.
• 0:52
  So anyway, but hey, it's a great day in beautiful downtown Acheson because the sun is shining.
• 0:59
  It's a beautiful, sunny day.
• 0:59
  It is a nice day.
• 1:00
  I was going to say it's a fall day, but it's not officially fall.
• 1:03
  Okay, but I'm going to talk about something fall in a minute.
• 1:05
  Okay, go ahead because like it feels like fall, so it's all weekend felt like fall.
• 1:09
  I know.
• 1:09
  Well, again, we are coming to you live in the heart of beautiful downtown Acheson, downtown Acheson at the Wall Coffee Roasters.
• 1:20
  Yes.
• 1:20
  Yes.
• 1:21
  Where they have new fall drinks.
• 1:23
  They do have new fall drinks.
• 1:24
  They do.
• 1:25
  Yes.
• 1:25
  They've just launched them.
• 1:27
  You've explored the new fall drinks.
• 1:28
  I did.
• 1:29
  And what did you come up with?
• 1:30
  So three new drinks.
• 1:32
  Yeah.
• 1:32
  The Cinnamon Bun Latte.
• 1:34
  Cinnamon Bun Latte? Now listen.
• 1:35
  Does that have a cinnamon bun in it?
• 1:37
  I'm going to...
• 1:38
  I wrote down what's in the Cinnamon Bun Latte.
• 1:41
  Espresso.
• 1:42
  Oh.
• 1:43
  Steamed milk.
• 1:43
  Steamed milk.
• 1:44
  Cinnamon syrup.
• 1:46
  Cinnamon syrup.
• 1:46
  A teaspoon of cinnamon bun icing.
• 1:49
  What?
• 1:50
  Sprinkled with cinnamon.
• 1:52
  So there's a lot of cinnamon.
• 1:53
  That's a lot of cinnamon.
• 1:54
  I hope you like cinnamon.
• 1:55
  Well, I can take it in small doses.
• 1:58
  That's a lot of dose of cinnamon.
• 2:00
  The icing, that's kind of cool.
• 2:01
  It's interesting.
• 2:02
  Yeah, it's very interesting.
• 2:03
  I have to find out about that.
• 2:03
  I'm going to try that just to try it.
• 2:05
  Yeah.
• 2:05
  Yeah.
• 2:05
  Okay.
• 2:06
  Okay.
• 2:07
  A spiced mocha.
• 2:08
  Spiced mocha.
• 2:09
  There's a secret ingredient.
• 2:10
  You tried this one.
• 2:11
  I've tried this one.
• 2:11
  Yes. I liked it.
• 2:12
  What did you think?
• 2:13
  I liked it.
• 2:13
  I thought it was very good.
• 2:15
  I didn't have a lot of it, but I had a taste of it and I really liked it.
• 2:18
  It was good.
• 2:19
  Okay.
• 2:19
  Cause it has...
• 2:21
  Is it cayenne?
• 2:22
  Cayenne pepper.
• 2:23
  Yeah, it has cayenne in it.
• 2:24
  I know.
• 2:25
  I know.
• 2:25
  It's got a little kick to it.
• 2:26
  Well, it should.
• 2:27
  It's kind of good.
• 2:28
  Yeah.
• 2:28
  I mean, again, I didn't have a whole mug of it, but...
• 2:31
  You just had a sip.
• 2:32
  But I liked it.
• 2:33
  It was good.
• 2:33
  Yeah.
• 2:33
  Good kick.
• 2:34
  Yeah.
• 2:34
  Yeah.
• 2:34
  And the last one, a maple fog, like a London fog, but with maple.
• 2:40
  Like maple syrup or just like maple?
• 2:42
  No, maple syrup.
• 2:43
  Oh, and it's a fog.
• 2:45
  So if you're in a fog, get the maple fog.
• 2:48
  Maybe.
• 2:49
  Wow.
• 2:49
  Okay, folks, there you have it.
• 2:51
  Three new drinks at The Wall Coffee Roasters.
• 2:54
  Yes.
• 2:54
  You got to come down to beautiful downtown.
• 2:55
  Come down and try them.
• 2:56
  Check it out.
• 2:57
  It's not officially fall.
• 2:59
  When is fall?
• 3:00
  When is it official?
• 3:01
  I think September 21st.
• 3:02
  September 21st.
• 3:03
  So that's like, what's today, the 8th?
• 3:05
  So that's like a little ways away, but it's coming.
• 3:07
  The leaves aren't turning yet, which is a good thing.
• 3:10
  I get a little nervous when the leaves start turning.
• 3:12
  Yeah.
• 3:12
  Because that means it could snow any day, but it's not going to snow.
• 3:14
  But anyway, so anyway, it feels like fall, but it's warm, but it's nice.
• 3:17
  We have new drinks at the Wall Coffee Roasters, and we need to tell you that Coffee In The Park with Jennifer and Cam is brought to you by Wing Snob Canada.
• 3:26
  Where the wings are fresh, never frozen.
• 3:28
  That's right.
• 3:28
  How many flavors?
• 3:29
  16 flavors.
• 3:30
  How many rubs?
• 3:30
  Four rubs.
• 3:31
  Parmesan fries, cornbread, they got it all.
• 3:35
  So if you're looking for a little snack tonight or dinner or something like that, check out Wing Snob.
• 3:39
  10 locations, eight in the city of Edmonton, one in Calgary, one in Grande Prairie, and hey, good wings.
• 3:46
  Excellent wings.
• 3:46
  Good wings.
• 3:48
  Somebody told us the other day, they heard about it and they went there.
• 3:51
  Janna.
• 3:51
  Janna.
• 3:52
  They heard about it from us and they went there and she liked the wings.
• 3:54
  She did.
• 3:55
  Thought they were good wings.
• 3:55
  I think she had teriyaki and barbecue.
• 3:57
  She ventured out.
• 3:58
  She did.
• 3:59
  Go Janna.
• 4:00
  No rubs.
• 4:01
  Go no rubs.
• 4:01
  All sauce.
• 4:02
  Go Janna.
• 4:04
  Janna stuck to the, it's okay.
• 4:06
  You can stick to the traditional.
• 4:08
  It's good.
• 4:08
  Yeah.
• 4:09
  So it's good.
• 4:09
  Wow.
• 4:10
  Okay.
• 4:11
  Well, this is exciting.
• 4:12
  And yeah, you got to check these drinks out.
• 4:15
  We need to do that off air.
• 4:17
  We'll check out all the drinks.
• 4:18
  We'll do a taste test of all of them.
• 4:20
  Okay.
• 4:21
  We'll order one of each.
• 4:22
  I know we need to get on to our guests, but I do have one other thing that I heard this morning.
• 4:26
  Yes.
• 4:26
  What did you hear?
• 4:27
  You notice how I didn't mention anything pumpkin spice on the Wall Coffee Roaster menu?
• 4:31
  Yeah.
• 4:32
  We're not, you don't do pumpkin spice.
• 4:33
  No, but listen, I heard pumpkin.
• 4:35
  Yeah.
• 4:36
  The whole pumpkin craze.
• 4:37
  Yes.
• 4:37
  Did you hear this?
• 4:38
  I heard this.
• 4:39
  It's, it's, it's not as popular.
• 4:40
  Correct.
• 4:41
  It's going, it's losing interest.
• 4:43
  It's losing the luster.
• 4:44
  Pumpkin, the pumpkin spice phase is losing interest.
• 4:48
  But did you hear what is being replaced with?
• 4:50
  No.
• 4:50
  Apple.
• 4:52
  Just apple or apple spice?
• 4:53
  Apple something.
• 4:54
  Just apple?
• 4:55
  Just a variety of apple drinks.
• 4:56
  Seriously?
• 4:57
  Yeah.
• 4:57
  Okay.
• 4:58
  I don't know how I feel about that.
• 4:59
  I'm not a big apple guy.
• 5:00
  I can't eat raw apples.
• 5:02
  I have a, I have a influx thing happen.
• 5:05
  When I eat raw apples, it just doesn't work.
• 5:08
  I can eat cooked apples, but not raw apples.
• 5:10
  So I don't know how I feel about that.
• 5:12
  I know.
• 5:12
  Well, okay.
• 5:13
  Maybe we'll have to try it.
• 5:14
  But that isn't that, well. Isn't that interesting? Pumpkin spice has been around forever.
• 5:17
  And they kept bringing it out earlier and earlier and earlier.
• 5:21
  I did see the other day that Werther's, you know, those Werther toffees, they have pumpkin spice.
• 5:26
  They have pumpkin?
• 5:27
  Yeah, they have pumpkin spice toffees.
• 5:29
  I don't know about that.
• 5:30
  I didn't try them.
• 5:31
  But anyway, so yeah, I don't know.
• 5:32
  In my opinion, they should just, they should, what's the famous one at Christmas?
• 5:37
  Eggnog.
• 5:38
  I just think they should bring out the eggnog right now.
• 5:41
  Yeah, I'm ready for eggnog.
• 5:42
  Yeah, anyway, I don't know about you folks, but yeah.
• 5:45
  So there's the coffee critique of the morning.
• 5:47
  That's right.
• 5:48
  So again, come to the Wall Coffee Roasters and check them out.
• 5:51
  And there's no pumpkin spice here as far as I can see.
• 5:54
  And I don't think there will be.
• 5:55
  I shouldn't speak like that.
• 5:56
  But I don't think that, because they got these new drinks.
• 5:59
  That's right.
• 5:59
  So it's kind of cool.
• 6:00
  Anyhow, very excited about today's guest.
• 6:03
  Very excited about today's topic.
• 6:06
  And also found out some stuff with our guest beforehand that makes me very excited.
• 6:12
  So that's a lot of excitement.
• 6:13
  I'm very excited.
• 6:14
  So why don't you introduce our guest?
• 6:16
  Our guest today is Laurie Hauer.
• 6:18
  Did I say your name right Laurie?
• 6:20
  You did.
• 6:20
  You did.
• 6:21
  Director of Programs and Services for The Newcomer Centre.
• 6:25
  Welcome Laurie.
• 6:26
  Good to have you.
• 6:27
  Thank you so much.
• 6:28
  Awesome to have you here.
• 6:29
  What a great way to spend a morning.
• 6:31
  Well, we hope you're, did you?
• 6:33
  No, you didn't try one of the new drinks, did you?
• 6:34
  No.
• 6:35
  You're just a straight latte. She's a traditionalist.
• 6:36
  I'm a good old traditional latte.
• 6:38
  Good for you, good for you.
• 6:39
  Except winter, eggnog is my thing.
• 6:41
  Do you like the eggnog? You bet! I know, hey?
• 6:43
  Seriously, they can bring that out now and I'd be happy, yeah. But no to pumkin spice.
• 6:46
  So, but I guess they won't till whenever, but yeah.
• 6:49
  November.
• 6:49
  November, yeah.
• 6:50
  After pumpkin's over, then comes eggnog.
• 6:53
  Anyway, good to have you.
• 6:54
  Thank you very much.
• 6:55
  Let's start from the beginning, as we always do with every guest.
• 6:58
  We do.
• 6:58
  Laurie, tell us a little bit about yourself.
• 7:01
  Where were you born and where did you grow up?
• 7:03
  Oh, goodness.
• 7:05
  Well, I was born in Edmonton, but I grew up actually in a little farm and acreage area just outside of Ardrossan.
• 7:12
  Oh, Ardrossan.
• 7:13
  So I'm an Ardrossan rural girl.
• 7:16
  Okay.
• 7:16
  Yeah.
• 7:17
  Yeah.
• 7:18
  Did you have to take the school bus to school every day?
• 7:20
  I sure did.
• 7:21
  Uphill both ways.
• 7:22
  Uphill both ways.
• 7:23
  In the middle of winter.
• 7:24
  In the winter.
• 7:25
  Minus 60 degrees.
• 7:26
  That's exactly right.
• 7:28
  School bus stalled, you got out and had to walk the rest of the way.
• 7:31
  Yeah, that's not untrue, actually.
• 7:34
  Aren't those great stories to tell your kids when they're like complaining?
• 7:37
  Like you don't even know the half of it.
• 7:39
  I know.
• 7:40
  I know.
• 7:40
  So did you go to school?
• 7:41
  Was there elementary and high school in Ardrossan?
• 7:44
  Or did you have to go to Sherwood Park for high school?
• 7:46
  No, actually, I was lucky enough.
• 7:48
  I think I went to elementary school in Wye School, which was just outside of Sherwood Park.
• 7:52
  But then a couple of schools were built quite quickly afterwards.
• 7:57
  So it was Fultonvale and then Ardrossan for high school.
• 7:59
  Yeah.
• 8:00
  The lovely thing about growing up in a small place like that too is that who I graduated high school with was pretty much the same group of kids that I went through, mostly elementary, junior high and high school with.
• 8:11
  You were all friends right to the end.
• 8:13
  Yeah, pretty much.
• 8:13
  That's pretty cool.
• 8:14
  Yeah.
• 8:15
  Right on.
• 8:15
  And so you lived on a farm or on an acreage?
• 8:18
  On an acreage, yeah.
• 8:19
  Did you have animals?
• 8:19
  Did you?
• 8:20
  You bet.
• 8:21
  What did you have?
• 8:21
  Cows, horses, chickens, ducks.
• 8:26
  Dogs, cats, you name it.
• 8:29
  All crammed onto a little acreage.
• 8:30
  Really?
• 8:31
  Yeah.
• 8:31
  And did you have to take care of them or not really?
• 8:34
  Or no?
• 8:35
  No, I actually have a childhood trauma about birds, so I stayed as far away from chickens and ducks.
• 8:40
  You and I.
• 8:40
  Did you?
• 8:43
  Yeah.
• 8:43
  Really?
• 8:44
  I can't handle them.
• 8:45
  Yeah.
• 8:45
  They scare the out of me.
• 8:47
  Like, seriously.
• 8:48
  My mom told me a story.
• 8:49
  She goes, you know, we had a pet bird when you were little.
• 8:51
  I have no recollection of having a pet bird.
• 8:54
  Really?
• 8:55
  And I was like, it has to be because I have bird trauma.
• 8:58
  You blocked it out.
• 8:59
  Yeah.
• 9:00
  Unfortunately, I can't block.
• 9:02
  I tried.
• 9:03
  I can't.
• 9:04
  There's trauma there too.
• 9:05
  There's bird trauma.
• 9:07
  Yeah.
• 9:07
  Wow.
• 9:08
  Okay.
• 9:09
  So you didn't really have to look after the animals or you did or?
• 9:13
  No, not a heck of a lot.
• 9:15
  I was really lucky because my parents lived on an acreage and my grandparents lived on an acreage right beside us.
• 9:22
  So my life was built on a little path that went in between the two houses every day, all day kind of thing.
• 9:28
  Yeah.
• 9:29
  Okay.
• 9:29
  Cool.
• 9:30
  And you graduated and decided, I'm leaving the acreage.
• 9:34
  That's right.
• 9:34
  And heading to the big city.
• 9:36
  That's exactly what happened.
• 9:38
  So like 17 years old, graduated high school, said, I'm out of here.
• 9:41
  You're one of those people who could like hardly wait.
• 9:44
  Yes.
• 9:44
  You could just hardly wait.
• 9:45
  Yeah.
• 9:45
  I think the bags were packed before I even graduated high school.
• 9:49
  You were ready to go, why?
• 9:51
  You just didn't know what.
• 9:53
  I think it was the whole like aura of big city, right?
• 9:57
  Like it was like, oh, I have to go there. Oh sure, if you grow up in a small town that's it.
• 9:59
  The draw of the city, yeah.
• 10:00
  Were your parents happy about that or like, I don't know, to be honest.
• 10:06
  I think they were.
• 10:07
  We'll see how fast it takes her to come back home.
• 10:09
  Yeah.
• 10:10
  Which it didn't.
• 10:12
  But I stayed out.
• 10:13
  That was it.
• 10:14
  But but yeah, I think they were curious to see whether I could manage.
• 10:19
  Yeah.
• 10:20
  What did you do when you came to the city?
• 10:21
  I was a pretty smart kid, actually.
• 10:23
  So I, my best friend from high school, her parents owned a cabinet making shop.
• 10:28
  Oh.
• 10:29
  Just just in the Beverly area at that time.
• 10:32
  And so I went to work for them and was learning how to make kitchen cabinetry.
• 10:37
  Really?
• 10:37
  Yeah.
• 10:37
  So I was training to be an apprentice carpenter.
• 10:41
  Is that right?
• 10:42
  A craftsperson.
• 10:43
  Yeah.
• 10:43
  Wow.
• 10:44
  That's pretty cool.
• 10:45
  Yeah, it was a really interesting experience.
• 10:48
  And so they had this cabinet making shop to one side of the building, but then her dad was kind of one of those avid people that would go to these places that were liquidating when stores went out of business.
• 10:59
  So the front end of the store was just whatever he bought from those liquidation places.
• 11:03
  So it could be t-shirts, baskets, dishes.
• 11:06
  Who knows?
• 11:06
  Yeah.
• 11:06
  Who knows what's there?
• 11:08
  So I do some sales stuff too at the front.
• 11:10
  Yeah.
• 11:10
  It was a really interesting experience to start my life at.
• 11:14
  Yeah.
• 11:14
  Wow.
• 11:15
  That's pretty cool.
• 11:15
  And so how long did you do that for?
• 11:17
  Not very long.
• 11:19
  No?
• 11:20
  Gosh.
• 11:22
  It probably would have been about seven or eight months.
• 11:25
  And so here's my tragic story of how I ended up where I am now.
• 11:30
  Right.
• 11:30
  And I was driving into work one morning and there was this orange hue in the, in, you know, in front of me.
• 11:38
  And our shop was actually on fire.
• 11:39
  No.
• 11:41
  And so the whole place just burnt to the ground.
• 11:43
  Come on.
• 11:43
  Yeah.
• 11:44
  So I was pretty devastated because at that time I was, it was 88', right?
• 11:48
  So 4.50 an hour, living on my own.
• 11:51
  4.50 an hour.
• 11:52
  I had a car.
• 11:52
  I was like, what am I going to do?
• 11:54
  My job is like up in flames.
• 11:57
  I just, sorry, I'm a little stuck on the 4.50 an hour.
• 12:00
  Okay, kids, did you hear that?
• 12:02
  4.50 an hour.
• 12:04
  Okay.
• 12:05
  So anyway, so you're driving to work.
• 12:06
  Yeah.
• 12:07
  You see the orange hue. It's on fire.
• 12:08
  It's on fire.
• 12:09
  Yeah.
• 12:09
  It's on fire.
• 12:10
  Yeah, it's on fire and it burned to the ground.
• 12:12
  You were out of a job.
• 12:13
  I was out of a job.
• 12:14
  And so obviously because of the big, big fire, there was a news story about it.
• 12:19
  And so that night I got a call from this woman, her name was Wendy, and she had seen the news story on and I had used to babysit her child when I was like 13, 14 years old.
• 12:30
  And she said, oh my God, like, what are you going to do?
• 12:31
  And I was like, I have no idea.
• 12:34
  Right.
• 12:34
  And she said, well, you know, it's interesting because I'm on the Board of Directors for this tiny little place, and they're looking for somebody to look after children while their parents are in English classes.
• 12:44
  Okay.
• 12:45
  And you were such a great babysitter, I thought maybe you might be interested.
• 12:48
  Isn't that something?
• 12:49
  And I thought, oh, like babysitting a child on a weekend for a few hours at their house.
• 12:55
  It's way different than eight hours a day. Everyday all day.
• 12:58
  Exactly.
• 12:59
  But as many people's stories go, I needed the job, right?
• 13:03
  And they were offering $6 an hour.
• 13:05
  So can you imagine?
• 13:06
  Oh, a raise.
• 13:07
  Like now, $1.50 an hour is like, wow.
• 13:10
  $1.50 an hour in 1988, 1989 was like, that's a huge difference in pay back then. That's a massive raise.
• 13:15
  You're moving up in the world.
• 13:16
  I thought, why not, right?
• 13:18
  So I went and had a cup of tea with this lovely lady named Rosabelle at a place called the Mennonite Centre for Newcomers.
• 13:24
  And she said to me, oh, you come highly recommended, do you want to start today?
• 13:30
  And she opened up the door to this room that was probably, maybe 150 square feet, full of crying babies and toddlers.
• 13:38
  And I thought, no way am I going to be here very long.
• 13:44
  Yeah.
• 13:45
  So it was like a daycare?
• 13:46
  Is that what it was?
• 13:47
  Yeah.
• 13:47
  Basically, at that time, babysitting service.
• 13:50
  Okay.
• 13:50
  Right.
• 13:50
  At that time, places like that didn't have to be regulated.
• 13:53
  You just had to be watching.
• 13:54
  You're basically babysitting kids, right.
• 13:56
  And so you thought, this is cool.
• 13:58
  This could be temporary until I get something that I...
• 14:01
  Yeah.
• 14:01
  And this is...
• 14:02
  Exactly.
• 14:02
  I'm not going to be here very long.
• 14:04
  Right.
• 14:04
  It's quite okay.
• 14:05
  I can handle this.
• 14:06
  But I find that fascinating.
• 14:08
  She saw the story on the news and saw you.
• 14:11
  And that's how it came about.
• 14:13
  Yeah.
• 14:14
  That's intriguing to me.
• 14:15
  That's incredible.
• 14:16
  Wow.
• 14:17
  I call that...
• 14:18
  Part of my career at the Newcomer Centre was in the employment area.
• 14:22
  And so there was a guru in employment.
• 14:25
  For the life of me, I can't remember his name, but he used to market this idea of unplanned happenstance.
• 14:30
  Yes.
• 14:31
  So when you fall into things that weren't intentional, but they lead you down a path that's sort of your right path for your career.
• 14:38
  And so I describe my life as an unplanned happenstance.
• 14:43
  If that fire hadn't happened.
• 14:44
  Tragedy turns into opportunity.
• 14:47
  Yeah, exactly.
• 14:48
  Incredible.
• 14:49
  And so you obviously accepted the job.
• 14:53
  Yeah.
• 14:53
  You went in, you did it, and then at what point did you realize, hey, this place is kind of intriguing, and I might want to stay.
• 15:02
  It didn't take me very long.
• 15:04
  I think, so imagine this, I'm 19, and I can remember this now when my daughter was 19, more so my daughter than my son, who at 19, was like, figured she knew it all.
• 15:15
  Do you have children? Didn't we all at nineteen?
• 15:16
  Yeah, didn't we all.
• 15:19
  Actually, side note, I used to tell my daughter that I didn't really like you between the ages of about 18 and 21, because you just figured you knew everything.
• 15:28
  I was like, I love you, but I didn't like you very much.
• 15:33
  We believe in total transparency.
• 15:35
  I don't really like you.
• 15:36
  I love you, but I don't really like you.
• 15:38
  That's exactly right.
• 15:39
  And so I think I was one of those sort of cocky 19-year-olds too that thought I am worldly.
• 15:46
  I know.
• 15:47
  I finished high school.
• 15:48
  I know everything.
• 15:49
  And very quickly I learned I knew nothing about people and the world and lives.
• 15:56
  It's funny, isn't it?
• 15:57
  Yeah.
• 15:57
  You do think you know every, I mean, we all, I think we all did.
• 16:00
  We all kind of did.
• 16:01
  And then yeah, it's wake up call.
• 16:02
  And already at 19, think of what you experienced already.
• 16:06
  Yeah.
• 16:06
  Wow.
• 16:07
  Yeah.
• 16:07
  So incredible.
• 16:08
  Yeah.
• 16:10
  So that's where I ended up.
• 16:12
  I just realized that there's much more for me to learn and understand about people and the world and what we can do, but also like my place in that story.
• 16:22
  Right.
• 16:24
  And I've been there ever since.
• 16:26
  So tell us about the organization because I know the stories we're going to talk about.
• 16:30
  Just tell us about what they do.
• 16:31
  You went there.
• 16:32
  What do they do?
• 16:34
  Well, when I went there, I thought they just taught English. Okay.
• 16:37
  But it's far bigger than that.
• 16:38
  So imagine back then, I think, I'm looking back at my employee number.
• 16:42
  I think I was employee number 11 or 12.
• 16:45
  And I was the last employee hired for a while.
• 16:48
  So I was lucky number 12 or 13 for a long period of time.
• 16:54
  So back then, we were about 12 of us.
• 16:56
  And now we're an agency of about 200 staff.
• 17:02
  And we have three, we operate out of three locations in the city of Edmonton, but certainly branch out into the community to support the community wherever is necessary.
• 17:09
  So back then, what were the services you were offering?
• 17:12
  English, babysitting?
• 17:14
  Yeah, some employment opportunities, mostly just around, I think we had a trades program at that time.
• 17:21
  We were working collaboratively with some employers to get people into the trades.
• 17:25
  And what we call settlement.
• 17:27
  So really, you know, settlement is about, you're new here, you're trying to find your place and just figure out some of those systems that will help you feel more comfortable in the community, that is outside of labour market stuff and whatnot.
• 17:39
  So these were newcomers to the country, first time Canadians or first time to Canada, and you guys help navigate them through that.
• 17:49
  Yeah, exactly.
• 17:51
  Wow.
• 17:51
  So, and that's pretty much the crux of what we do now.
• 17:54
  So even though we're 45 years old at this, this year's our 45th anniversary, actually, we still offer those core services of language development, employment, and we do training programs within that.
• 18:07
  We do settlement work.
• 18:10
  We offer mental health supports as well.
• 18:12
  We have some specialized programs for LGBTQIA newcomers and immigrants.
• 18:20
  But just sort of in a, we kind of kaboomed.
• 18:22
  So not just one language class, but 48 of them.
• 18:25
  I can only imagine.
• 18:27
  But over the years.
• 18:28
  But tell us a little bit about like the history of why it was started and maybe how that's changed over the years.
• 18:34
  Yeah.
• 18:35
  It's actually, it's a really interesting story because there was a small group of people from the Mennonite churches that were local that identified a need in the community that was a bit of a gap, and that was that there was a large number of people coming over from Vietnam who were refugees who didn't really have the supports and connections to the community that they needed, and they had thought maybe we could pool a bit of resources together to try to do some support.
• 19:04
  And so in the living room of one of the Mennonite church members' homes, her name is Irene Baergen, who by the way is still volunteering with us now.
• 19:14
  They made a plan to see what they could do.
• 19:17
  So there was a Mennonite church member, her name was Anne Falk, who actually had spent about 10 years in Vietnam.
• 19:25
  So she was a nurse from Canada, but spoke fluent Vietnamese as well.
• 19:29
  They thought maybe we could pool enough money together to pay a salary for her, and they got enough for actually a salary and a half.
• 19:37
  And so had one and a half people supported by the church.
• 19:41
  You know, they would pick up people and drive them around.
• 19:44
  They'd take them to job interviews.
• 19:45
  They'd take them to apartment buildings and whatnot to apply for apartments.
• 19:50
  Everything kind of out of the car, right?
• 19:54
  And the Mennonite group of people way back then, they understood a lot of that because they were newcomers to Canada, and they knew what it was like.
• 20:03
  And I know that because I have good friends that are Mennonite folks, and they tell a little of their story.
• 20:07
  And it's like, they came with nothing.
• 20:10
  Nothing.
• 20:11
  And it was ingrained in them once they got going to reach out and to help others in the same situation.
• 20:17
  So that's kind of cool.
• 20:19
  Wow.
• 20:19
  And it's very much part of the Mennonite tradition that I think even continues in our agency now is that idea of giving, and the idea of doing it in peace, and helping to support and being good and kind.
• 20:33
  So way back then, when you started, how many people were you dealing with a year, say?
• 20:38
  Oh, I would say probably a couple of hundred, maybe up to four or five hundred.
• 20:43
  And now?
• 20:44
  Twenty five thousand last year.
• 20:45
  Twenty five thousand.
• 20:47
  A year.
• 20:48
  Yeah.
• 20:49
  A year.
• 20:49
  Yeah.
• 20:50
  A couple hundred to twenty five.
• 20:53
  Yeah.
• 20:53
  Talk about growth.
• 20:54
  Yes.
• 20:55
  Wow.
• 20:56
  Growth of not just of the agency, but growth of our community too.
• 21:00
  It's a story of the community of Alberta.
• 21:02
  Yeah.
• 21:02
  Well, you're right.
• 21:04
  It is the story of the Alberta community.
• 21:05
  Yeah.
• 21:05
  That's incredible.
• 21:06
  Holy smokes. 25,000! OK.
• 21:10
  So and back then, like where was the initial location?
• 21:14
  Because that changed.
• 21:16
  Yeah.
• 21:16
  It was in a school, right?
• 21:18
  In the basement of I think it was King's College, which was located at that time downtown.
• 21:23
  Yeah.
• 21:23
  Yeah.
• 21:23
  The old King's College.
• 21:24
  Yeah.
• 21:25
  And then we just sort of moved around and grew and grew.
• 21:27
  And I joined the agency when we were a small little space on a second floor on the corner of 109th Street and 107th Avenue.
• 21:34
  So right down on that.
• 21:36
  Yeah.
• 21:36
  So that all nations, multicultural avenue, 107th.
• 21:40
  Yeah.
• 21:40
  Wow.
• 21:41
  That's incredible.
• 21:42
  Wow.
• 21:43
  A couple hundred to 25,000.
• 21:45
  Yeah.
• 21:46
  So over the years, obviously the programs have grown.
• 21:49
  What did you add as time?
• 21:50
  Were you adding programs as time?
• 21:52
  What were you adding?
• 21:53
  What kind of things were you doing for new immigrants, I would suspect, primarily?
• 21:57
  Right?
• 21:57
  Yeah.
• 21:58
  Well, I think one of our jobs there is really to understand what the needs are that are happening within the community of people who are coming.
• 22:04
  And so while we have a core group of services, what happens within that embedded core group of services changes.
• 22:11
  Right.
• 22:11
  So in employment, there's a lot of training programs that are offered for people.
• 22:18
  But what type of training it is depends a lot on where the labor market trends are, what the stories of people are, what experiences they're bringing over.
• 22:25
  For a really long period of time, we had bridging programs for internationally educated professionals trying to get engineers and accountants back into their work, of engineering and accounting.
• 22:36
  You know, and there's so, it really does depend, you know, and kind of what's going on.
• 22:42
  I think one of the unique things about not-for-profit and us is the story of just being able to pivot to what's happening and just make changes quickly.
• 22:51
  Yeah, change, the environment changes, you change.
• 22:53
  Yeah, that's exactly right.
• 22:55
  That's really something, that's incredible.
• 22:57
  ESL, that must be the kind of the foundation of some of it, teaching English, because that's key.
• 23:04
  Getting people settled.
• 23:06
  So, who comes to you, how do they find out about you?
• 23:09
  Do they look you up in the, get off the plane and look you up on the phone book and go, how do they find out about you?
• 23:15
  Well, it's interesting, ages ago I would have told you through a lot of marketing processes, but now it really is word of mouth, which I hope speaks a lot about the kind of work that we do for people, that your neighbours or your friends or whatever are saying, go there, they can give you a hand.
• 23:30
  So for the most part, that's where information is coming from, but immigration has changed quite a lot.
• 23:34
  There's a lot more information that's accessible for people even prior to them coming here.
• 23:39
  So we even do have people who are reaching out to us prior to them coming here, asking questions, getting clarification on even documents that they might need to bring with them that will help them be able to progress and get ready once they're here.
• 23:51
  Because I would imagine the bureaucracy has changed a lot.
• 23:54
  Yeah.
• 23:55
  Not all bad, but the bureaucracy has changed a lot.
• 23:57
  Yeah, for sure, for sure.
• 23:58
  In what you have to do.
• 23:59
  Yeah, and in some countries cases, if you don't come with things like your, if you're a graduate of a university, you don't come with a copy of your transcripts, you're gonna have a really hard time once you're here to get that.
• 24:09
  Right.
• 24:10
  Or your driver's record.
• 24:11
  Because you can come and say, I'm a doctor.
• 24:13
  Yeah.
• 24:14
  But you're not really a doctor.
• 24:15
  Yeah, okay, so yeah.
• 24:16
  Yeah, exactly.
• 24:17
  Wow.
• 24:17
  So what does, walk us through what a settlement, what that looks like for somebody coming to Canada and maybe what one of your staff does?
• 24:28
  Well, it's interesting that you say, I often get asked by people, how long does it take someone to settle?
• 24:33
  Yeah.
• 24:33
  And there is no one true sense of timing.
• 24:37
  And I'm gonna be honest with you and say that for some people, they never feel settled here, because they feel disconnected from their home country and just can't find that place.
• 24:45
  And then there's others who jump right in and find what they need.
• 24:49
  And so, you know, an average person might come in and they may say, you know, I need some help getting my kids registered for school.
• 24:56
  It's the first time I don't understand this system.
• 24:59
  But you know, Canadians, trust me, I know.
• 25:03
  My neighbors had to make sure.
• 25:05
  It was a very confusing year for them, getting their kids enrolled.
• 25:08
  I bet.
• 25:09
  I bet.
• 25:10
  Yeah. I could imagine.
• 25:10
  If you don't understand the system, we're so embedded in them, right?
• 25:13
  That we don't realize that that's a learning experience for people.
• 25:16
  If you just imagine yourself going to another country and trying to, even if you spoke that language, to navigate those systems and how they do things, it's a learning for everybody to have to experience.
• 25:27
  So someone may come in and walk into one of our locations and say, they have this need to get their kids registered in school.
• 25:34
  But the real goal is to try to do a holistic look at someone and see, is there anything else that we can support them with?
• 25:40
  Whether that's something that we do, whether it's another agency within the city, whether it's someone completely altogether, someone different than us, because we're not the be-all end-all of settlement agencies, and sometimes there's better places and resources for somebody to go.
• 25:56
  I love that, actually.
• 25:57
  I love it when agencies work together.
• 25:59
  When they collaborate.
• 26:00
  Some agencies, and I hate to say it, and not many, but some feel they're an island unto themselves, and they miss out because if you just collaborate with other agencies, there's strength in numbers, and there's the ability to provide the whole rounded need for the person.
• 26:17
  So I'm glad to hear you guys do that.
• 26:18
  That's pretty cool.
• 26:19
  It's not a very competitive industry, to be truthful.
• 26:22
  I mean, the reality is, in not-for-profit...
• 26:24
  I was just going to say, only for the dollars.
• 26:28
  Well, even there, there's always a reasonable share to go along, especially if you're collaborating and working together.
• 26:33
  Yeah.
• 26:34
  You know, but I find the Edmonton community is very unique in the not-for-profit sector and the way they work together and collaborate.
• 26:42
  Now, I'm going to...
• 26:43
  I hope I don't sound like I'm bashing Calgary, but I think a long time ago, Calgary, you know, responded to their community in a very different way by almost like segmenting this city into these zones.
• 26:53
  You know, you're not wrong.
• 26:54
  And they don't go back and forth with each other.
• 26:56
  Because studies have shown over the years, Edmonton is, in the non-profit world, is one of the highest giving per capita cities in actually all of North America.
• 27:07
  And they say a lot of that had to do with, you had people working in the oil patch, all that kind of stuff, making good dollars.
• 27:13
  But they were just ordinary folks who, when the need was put before them, they responded to the need.
• 27:18
  Yeah.
• 27:18
  So yeah.
• 27:19
  Yeah.
• 27:19
  And I don't think that's changed a lot.
• 27:21
  No.
• 27:21
  The economy has changed a bit, but I don't think that's changed a lot.
• 27:24
  Okay.
• 27:25
  So you provide for them, do you provide housing?
• 27:27
  Can you find housing?
• 27:29
  Yeah.
• 27:29
  I mean, that's a piece of settlement, right?
• 27:31
  Is to find a safe and secure place to live.
• 27:33
  We don't have housing ourselves that we operate, but we have relationships with places, with landlords or organizations that are trustworthy, that we know that are going to be safe for places, or safe for people to be in that case.
• 27:48
  We can get them connected to, of course, our employment counselors to help when they're ready for everything that is around getting a job and understanding those systems.
• 27:58
  There, of course, is language development.
• 28:00
  For some people, there's language development that's in there.
• 28:02
  That's really important.
• 28:04
  And so one of those things that we provide, like that child-minding and whatnot is, and transportation is a really critical thing for people.
• 28:10
  I was going to say transportation.
• 28:11
  Yes.
• 28:11
  That's one of the reasons why we try to operate out of several places in the city and go where people are, as opposed to having them come to us.
• 28:18
  That's very smart.
• 28:19
  Here's the thing that I always find interesting is that many people come from many countries and many of those countries are very hot countries.
• 28:29
  They come here in the middle of January, and I just like watching them and I think, do you ever, and I get it, they come from, some of them come from very difficult circumstances in those countries.
• 28:41
  But minus 30, when you've never had minus 30, that's got to be just a mind-blowing thing.
• 28:46
  You can't imagine, I don't think anyone can imagine what that actually is like, you know?
• 28:50
  But when I was about 21, I took a couple months off, and I went, traveled Australia, and of course, one of those things is backpackers.
• 28:57
  You sit around the tables, and you talk about those things that you're comparing your countries, right?
• 29:02
  And I remember sitting around this table with a bunch of Australian young guys, and they were like, well, you know, how cold does it get in Canada?
• 29:08
  And I said, well, you know, with the wind chill, it can be, you know, minus 40 Celsius.
• 29:11
  And they were like, you're lying.
• 29:13
  That's right.
• 29:14
  And so I took one of them, their mailing address.
• 29:17
  And so when I got home and it was winter when I arrived home, I cut out the front page of the newspaper and sent it to him and said, see, I'm not lying to you.
• 29:27
  Yeah, you're right.
• 29:27
  It's true.
• 29:28
  And people don't think about it.
• 29:30
  Like they just, we take it for granted because we were acclimatized.
• 29:33
  Yeah.
• 29:34
  Like you, I've traveled many places in the world.
• 29:38
  When it's plus 30 here, I think that's hot.
• 29:41
  Yeah.
• 29:41
  But I've been to places in the world where it can be plus 50, like literally.
• 29:46
  Yeah.
• 29:46
  And I'm dying, like I'm dying.
• 29:48
  And I'm thinking to myself, I could never live here in a million years.
• 29:52
  The converse side of that is minus 30.
• 29:55
  Yeah.
• 29:56
  And they've never in their life.
• 29:57
  And we've had, we know people that have come.
• 30:00
  And it's like how they do it is beyond me.
• 30:03
  I know they bundle up, but it's just like, it's such a cultural change.
• 30:07
  And people don't realize what effect that has on people.
• 30:11
  Yeah.
• 30:12
  Like it's not just, how you should acclimatize, that's just not how it works.
• 30:15
  Yeah, no.
• 30:15
  It affects every part of your being, your daily routine, your daily life, your daily existence, stuff like that, that you're not used to.
• 30:23
  So the fact that you're there to walk through some of that with them.
• 30:27
  Sometimes it is those, what feels like basic things, but they are about being able to say, I don't like to use the word survive, but to live and flourish in our community, right?
• 30:37
  Or simple things like that.
• 30:39
  So you said, started out with Vietnamese people, 2026, tell us where they all come from.
• 30:49
  Oh, it's a pretty broad range right now, but I'd say there's still a lot of Ukrainians that we're supporting, of course.
• 30:55
  There are not so many new arrivals, but just because someone isn't brand new here, doesn't mean they don't necessarily still need the support of a settlement agency, even if it's just a little bite of something.
• 31:07
  A lot of people from Africa, so Congo, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Philippines is still a high place.
• 31:19
  And I think statistically, there's still a lot of people coming from places like China.
• 31:24
  Although we don't see a lot of those people walking in to our doors, I think that has a lot to do with how well embedded our community is here.
• 31:33
  And I speak that way also, like I live in Millwoods, of course.
• 31:36
  And so we are a really strong cultural area where there's a lot of people from India, Pakistan.
• 31:41
  South Asia, huge.
• 31:43
  Yeah, and that group of people are really settled in their community and have established a lot of ways to support newcomers in their own community.
• 31:51
  And so we don't often see them quite as much coming in the doors because there's those embedded supports in the community, which again is something fantastic.
• 31:59
  That is fantastic.
• 31:59
  Yeah.
• 32:00
  Yeah.
• 32:00
  Welcoming their own and getting them integrated like they had to be integrated.
• 32:05
  Exactly.
• 32:05
  Yeah.
• 32:06
  But you said 48 languages now.
• 32:08
  Yeah, something like that.
• 32:11
  And how do you find?
• 32:12
  Yeah.
• 32:13
  How do you find?
• 32:14
  Do you have people on staff that speak 48 languages?
• 32:17
  We do.
• 32:17
  Do you really?
• 32:18
  We do have probably more than that.
• 32:20
  I think we have a staff languages somewhere around 72 different languages right now.
• 32:25
  Is that 72?
• 32:25
  That's incredible.
• 32:27
  Wow.
• 32:27
  Because buried in there, of course, is a lot of the cultural languages.
• 32:32
  So you may speak Arabic, but if you are Arabic and you are from a specific region of Africa, you'll speak your regional tongue as well as the tongue of whatever was in your town.
• 32:41
  It's like people think Philippines, Filipinos speak Tagalog, but little did they realize there is literally thousands of dialects of Tagalog.
• 32:51
  Exactly.
• 32:53
  Yeah, some of them just don't understand the other because it was like my mother, German, and she'd talk about a high German and a low German.
• 33:00
  Yeah.
• 33:00
  She could speak German, but she couldn't speak a low German and didn't really understand it either.
• 33:05
  So it was like, yeah, I can see where that's huge.
• 33:08
  I was going to ask her if they just use Google Translate because- It doesn't work very well.
• 33:14
  God bless AI.
• 33:16
  Yeah.
• 33:18
  Everybody thinks it's perfect.
• 33:26
  You want an elephant?
• 33:26
  It's much easier.
• 33:28
  I can remember being a front line worker and working with someone whose language was low, but you get very creative in your communication.
• 33:35
  Communication isn't just about language and the competent to speak a language.
• 33:39
  You can also speak a language really well and not be the greatest communicator.
• 33:42
  Right.
• 33:42
  So, you know, drawing and hand gestures and pointing become, you become a bit of a second language, but it works, right?
• 33:50
  It works, sure.
• 33:51
  A bit of charades.
• 33:52
  Yeah.
• 33:52
  Yeah.
• 33:53
  Sometimes.
• 33:55
  I always, at this time of year, school has started, just started, and I feel for new immigrants to Canada, and I feel for teachers with the kids coming in, and it's a bit of a challenge, and the kids are pretty adaptable and they can learn pretty quick.
• 34:11
  The teachers, I feel sorry for, because they're trying to learn as well.
• 34:15
  So this whole immigration thing is huge.
• 34:19
  There's far more to it than what most people realize and think.
• 34:22
  Is that a fair statement like that?
• 34:23
  That's a very fair statement.
• 34:24
  It's just huge.
• 34:25
  Yeah.
• 34:26
  And not always for the better, unfortunately, or depending, but we're all trying to make this work, and it's a lot of work.
• 34:35
  Without agencies like yours, I don't know.
• 34:37
  And so when I said earlier, the relationship, so my daughter who we find out, my daughter actually worked for you for a year, I think.
• 34:46
  Yeah.
• 34:46
  She worked for you and she loved it.
• 34:49
  And what she loved was, I think she worked in helping them get settled and she'd get invited over to their house, and they would treat her.
• 34:57
  She said, Dad, they wanted you to eat, they wanted you to sit, they wanted you to stay, they wanted you to visit.
• 35:03
  They were just so appreciative and so welcoming of you.
• 35:06
  She loved that.
• 35:07
  She thought that was fantastic.
• 35:09
  It's that piece of offering grace back to people and thanks.
• 35:14
  Food is a really big piece in many cultures, which I think we're not really clear on here that our culture is built on all of those cultures.
• 35:24
  And yeah, food is a really big thing in our agency and space.
• 35:28
  And I can remember being invited out to my first dim sum experience with a group of seniors, Asian seniors, and being fed, of course, not wanting to be impolite, like being, you know, stuff being tossed on my plate.
• 35:41
  I had no idea what it was.
• 35:43
  You just ate it.
• 35:44
  I ate it out of gratefulness.
• 35:45
  I've been in those situations, yeah.
• 35:47
  And you're just like, I don't know what it is, but that's where you pray over it and hope that everything's good the way it goes.
• 35:54
  Well, and also you have to remember that, you know, the majority of those people that we were working with at the time, for sure, their incomes were quite low.
• 36:02
  And for them to want to treat in a place like that says, and so to say no or to turn something down like that is not the right thing to do.
• 36:10
  You're right.
• 36:10
  You know, it absolutely isn't.
• 36:12
  So one of the things that your agency does, which I think is really great, is something called the RISE Awards.
• 36:18
  Yeah.
• 36:19
  Tell us a little bit about that.
• 36:21
  Oh, I love the RISE Awards.
• 36:22
  So RISE stands for Recognizing Immigrant Success in Edmonton and the surrounding area.
• 36:28
  That is a little caveat.
• 36:30
  This year is our 20th anniversary of those.
• 36:34
  It began as just a little idea.
• 36:37
  Twenty some odd years ago, we didn't have one the year of the Fort McMurray fires.
• 36:41
  In fact, actually that year, we did have one and they turned the expo into one of the evacuation and safety sites.
• 36:49
  So we actually donated our dinner that we had had.
• 36:52
  We're working with Northlands on that to the evacuees that were staying there.
• 36:57
  Of course, during the pandemic, it was a bit of a pause because who knew what to do when all that was happening.
• 37:02
  So 20 some odd years on.
• 37:05
  So it was just a little idea from one of our executive directors on how can we take a moment to acknowledge and help other people in the community recognize that newcomers and immigrants make massive contribution to our community in different ways, at different ages, through different types of experiences.
• 37:25
  And so the award started as just a community-based experience where we celebrated, had food and acknowledged specific people and has grown to an award ceremony, a gala, where people are nominated.
• 37:40
  So our nomination process just actually ended.
• 37:43
  And a small selection committee made up of community members will sit through the nominations and make a decision on who we will kind of recognize at the gala.
• 37:53
  But one of the lovely things that I think that we do that's a bit different, it's not quite like the Oscars, but is that just even being nominated, we try to ensure that people are recognized because it means somebody has taken the effort to say this person should be acknowledged for what they're doing for our community.
• 38:11
  And so on November 19th, we have this big gala at the Expo Centre with, you know, some great hosts and some fantastic food and some cultural music and videos.
• 38:24
  And we recognize those six people, there are six different categories in there on that night, together with their families and the community.
• 38:32
  Yeah.
• 38:33
  That's awesome.
• 38:34
  And I tell you, if I ever needed a moment in my life, in my work to sort of be reinvigorated, it's walking into that room on that evening and seeing all the people that are there and going through that experience just reminds me, oh, this is why we're here.
• 38:49
  So for you guys, it's a success story.
• 38:52
  Yeah.
• 38:52
  Yeah.
• 38:53
  Celebrating those success stories.
• 38:55
  It is, yes.
• 38:56
  It's celebrating other people's success stories, right?
• 38:58
  Because I always say, this is not about us, right?
• 39:01
  We're just walking along side people.
• 39:02
  But you were a part of it.
• 39:03
  Yeah.
• 39:04
  You were a part of it and a catalyst for much of it.
• 39:06
  Yeah.
• 39:06
  That's fantastic.
• 39:07
  Yeah.
• 39:08
  That's incredible.
• 39:09
  What's the biggest need of your organization?
• 39:13
  Well.
• 39:13
  Outside of money.
• 39:15
  Well, there always is that.
• 39:17
  I think we'll speak a little bit about the money piece for a moment.
• 39:21
  I think that one of the reasons you'll hear a lot of not-for-profit saying that they're in need of financial support is that, well, there are supports out there that come in the form of grants from different levels of government foundations that we're ever so grateful for.
• 39:34
  There's always gaps, right?
• 39:37
  In what people's needs are versus what or how someone would fund something.
• 39:42
  We know it.
• 39:42
  And so, as an example, we may have people going into work who have their first jobs and maybe they're getting their jobs as a first-year apprentice, but do not have the money to buy the appropriate work gear in order to show up. PPE and more, yeah.
• 39:58
  We know that here.
• 39:59
  Yeah, exactly.
• 40:01
  The company that I work for right here.
• 40:02
  We know that.
• 40:03
  We hire them.
• 40:04
  They don't have steel-toed boots, and they don't even have, while we provide coveralls and things like that, but they don't really have work clothes.
• 40:12
  Yeah.
• 40:12
  So even, it's not even finances that, even partnerships with places that would donate, things like that would be, is a really great need.
• 40:20
  And there's often gaps for, feeling a part of a community is also about that social experience of a community.
• 40:28
  And so funders are happy to fund activities that are related to the work that you're doing.
• 40:34
  But if you want to take a group of girls out for the weekend at camp to learn about camping, but also developing relationships and what not, you know, but people don't fund things like that.
• 40:45
  But social connections are critical for young women.
• 40:48
  Right. I like that.
• 40:50
  And so opportunities to fund those.
• 40:52
  And nobody funds food.
• 40:54
  And we all know that we gather around food, right?
• 40:57
  No, you're right.
• 40:58
  And so being able to have food at, you know, in classrooms, right?
• 41:04
  You know, when you're bringing a bunch of young men together to talk, you know, to be able to have snacks and food there, food gathers people.
• 41:11
  Right.
• 41:13
  Yeah.
• 41:14
  Again, it's the truth.
• 41:16
  It's one of those like life necessities.
• 41:18
  And yet it's often hard to get that funded.
• 41:22
  Yeah.
• 41:22
  Yeah.
• 41:23
  Yeah.
• 41:23
  Well, and it's talking about food, no matter what culture, no matter what culture, the greatest impact is done around the table.
• 41:32
  Yeah.
• 41:33
  Like that's a reality.
• 41:34
  Yeah.
• 41:35
  Like we can talk about why, and I think I figured out why and all those kinds of things.
• 41:40
  But the reality is the best conversations, the best impact.
• 41:44
  We can all think about the times where we just sat around the table with friends and family and had those conversations that had deep impact on our life.
• 41:52
  But more than that formed a bond with the other person around the table or the other people around the table.
• 41:57
  So yeah.
• 41:58
  So folks, if you want to donate snacks, yeah, snacks, the snack attack would be great. If you're going to Costco.
• 42:06
  We should start the snack attack campaign for sitting around the table.
• 42:11
  Yeah.
• 42:12
  So yeah, no food brings us together.
• 42:13
  Food breaks down barriers and food relaxes people and opens up conversation.
• 42:17
  That's the reality of it.
• 42:19
  So this is incredible.
• 42:22
  I mean, this is how many years?
• 42:24
  30?
• 42:25
  The agency or me?
• 42:27
  Well, both.
• 42:27
  Agency 45 this year and January next year, it'll be 39 years for me.
• 42:33
  39.
• 42:34
  That blows me away.
• 42:35
  I know we were talking earlier and that blows Jennifer and I away because we've both been involved in non-profit.
• 42:42
  There usually is quite a turnaround and you said, no, no, but that's amazing.
• 42:47
  You've been in this agency for 39 years.
• 42:51
  It's an incredibly special place.
• 42:53
  And the work can be hard.
• 42:55
  Yeah, for sure. But the people are incredible.
• 42:58
  And not every story is a success story.
• 43:00
  That's very true.
• 43:01
  Not every story is a success story.
• 43:02
  And people don't realize that people that work with people, whether they're marginalized, new immigrants, whatever it is, there are some very difficult situations that you see and that you face and that you have to walk through. Hard work.
• 43:16
  I'm always just in awe of the people who work in the front lines of our agency and how they come together.
• 43:21
  And I'll tell you a little story about a young, I guess he wasn't young, but a man who came in.
• 43:27
  And I think this is an unfortunate story sometimes around in some of the other service providers, perhaps not the non-for-profit area, but people will go to them and they'll say, well, we can't help you, go somewhere else.
• 43:39
  And he had come into our doors and he sat down on one of our couches in the front and started crying.
• 43:44
  And one of our staff at our front desk sat down next to him, which is very common for them to do.
• 43:48
  They kind of come out from behind the desk, meet people where they're at, say hello, greet, and sat down and said, are you okay?
• 43:55
  And he had said, you're not going to say no to me, are you?
• 43:58
  And he had been to a couple other places that said, sorry, we can't help you, sorry, we can't help you.
• 44:03
  And he had been sleeping in his car.
• 44:06
  He had had no gas, no food, pretty unsafe place for him to be.
• 44:10
  And our staff just went into action.
• 44:12
  One of them walked down the road to pick up lunch for him, so he had something in his belly.
• 44:16
  Another one got a gas card for him.
• 44:18
  The other one said he needs a job and he needs a safe place to stay.
• 44:21
  I know an employer hiring people for overnight shifts.
• 44:24
  Maybe I'll give him a call and see if he can.
• 44:26
  He didn't have a phone to use, someone bought him a SIM card.
• 44:30
  And none of our staff were like, no, no, you don't have to pay me back for the gas card.
• 44:34
  No, no, no, no, no, we will.
• 44:37
  These are the kinds of things that donations are always great for too, right?
• 44:40
  To fill these weird gaps that don't typically fall under action.
• 44:43
  And so he got a job.
• 44:45
  You know, within two or three days, we had taken to a place where he was safe to be able to sleep, you know, not in his car or whatnot.
• 44:52
  We got the overnight shift.
• 44:54
  And about two years later, he had come back to our space to use one of our computers and our resource centre to do his Canadian citizenship oath.
• 45:01
  Oh, wow.
• 45:01
  Yeah.
• 45:02
  And so this full sort of turnaround story, right? Full circle.
• 45:05
  Yeah.
• 45:06
  I love stories like that.
• 45:08
  I mean, yeah, I love them.
• 45:10
  I mean, that's what it's all about.
• 45:12
  And those of us who are blessed and have been given much, I've always believed to who much is given, much is expected as well.
• 45:23
  And I think that's fantastic.
• 45:25
  And your staff doing that.
• 45:26
  But we all should be doing that in some way, shape or form.
• 45:29
  And it's just incredible.
• 45:31
  How do people find out about you?
• 45:35
  They can always give me a call.
• 45:37
  They can visit our website at newcomercentre.com.
• 45:40
  That's probably one of the easiest places or give us a shout at 780-424-7709.
• 45:47
  If they are not sure where to reach us.
• 45:49
  They can always ask for Laurie.
• 45:51
  When they call.
• 45:51
  That's me, of course.
• 45:52
  And I'll ensure that they get directed to the right place.
• 45:56
  Just watch.
• 45:56
  Now I'm only going to get.
• 45:57
  That's right.
• 45:58
  I'm only talking to Laurie.
• 45:59
  Nobody else.
• 46:01
  Now that I'm in a leadership role, I do miss some of those people.
• 46:04
  So it's okay.
• 46:05
  Call Laurie, everybody.
• 46:06
  She misses it.
• 46:07
  Give Laurie a call.
• 46:09
  The other thing you can do is come to our RISE Awards.
• 46:12
  If you really want to get a good sense of what's going on, tickets are on sale on our website.
• 46:16
  There's a tab at the very top that says RISE Awards.
• 46:19
  You can buy single tickets.
• 46:20
  You can buy a table and bring you and a whole bunch of friends or your company.
• 46:24
  And just experience that day, November 19th at the Expo Centre in the evening.
• 46:29
  Yeah.
• 46:29
  Fantastic.
• 46:30
  Cool.
• 46:30
  Laurie, this has been amazing. This is great.
• 46:32
  Yeah.
• 46:33
  You're doing incredible work.
• 46:34
  Thank you.
• 46:34
  You should be very proud of what you do and what your organization does.
• 46:37
  I'm super proud of our agency.
• 46:39
  Yeah.
• 46:39
  Well, we have one final question that we ask all of our guests.
• 46:42
  Okay.
• 46:43
  So, what is the best piece of advice you have been given, either personally or professionally, that you carry with you to this day?
• 46:52
  Oh, what is the best piece of advice?
• 46:55
  I would say is to always act with integrity.
• 46:59
  Yeah.
• 46:59
  It's good.
• 47:00
  That's good.
• 47:02
  Yeah.
• 47:03
  Yeah.
• 47:04
  In all my life, not just professional, personal as well.
• 47:07
  Fabulous.
• 47:07
  Well, thank you for doing what you do.
• 47:11
  It's pretty amazing.
• 47:11
  Thank you.
• 47:12
  Thank you for having an impact on my daughter's life when she worked there because it did.
• 47:17
  And she would come home and very emotional sometimes about the stories.
• 47:23
  And but just real impact.
• 47:25
  And listen, folks, if you're listening, looking for someplace to plug in, to give support, whatever, this sounds like a great place.
• 47:34
  I know it's integral because it's been around for a long time.
• 47:38
  It started out of a very integral group of people and has been kept that way over the years.
• 47:44
  And so yeah, check it out.
• 47:46
  Pretty amazing.
• 47:47
  It is.
• 47:47
  Pretty incredible.
• 47:49
  Thanks for listening, everybody.
• 47:50
  Hey, listen, make sure that you tell somebody about the podcast.
• 47:55
  This story right here today, this is pretty encouraging.
• 47:57
  So make sure you tell somebody about the story.
• 48:00
  Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your coworkers, tell your enemies.
• 48:03
  If you don't have any friends, make one.
• 48:06
  So you can tell them about the podcast so they can listen to this story.
• 48:09
  Or if you know somebody who's new to Canada, tell them to listen to the podcast.
• 48:13
  That's right.
• 48:14
  Yeah, because they'll find out all about this organization and what they do.
• 48:17
  And yeah, it's really awesome.
• 48:19
  Thank you Wing Snob for being our sponsor.
• 48:21
  Thank you Wing Snob.
• 48:22
  Appreciate it.
• 48:23
  16 flavors.
• 48:24
  Four rubs.
• 48:26
  Cornbread, parm fries.
• 48:28
  That's what I always have there.
• 48:29
  So that's why I always say that because they're really awesome.
• 48:31
  And this has been great.
• 48:33
  Yes.
• 48:33
  Follow us on Instagram.
• 48:35
  Oh yeah.
• 48:35
  And don't forget to subscribe.
• 48:37
  Subscribe, subscribe, subscribe.
• 48:40
  Our numbers are going up.
• 48:41
  Thank you.
• 48:42
  What number is this?
• 48:43
  We're number?
• 48:45
  120.
• 48:46
  Isn't that incredible?
• 48:48
  Folks, listen, you might not realize this, but 120 episodes. That's a huge accomplishment! We've never missed a week.
• 48:54
  No.
• 48:55
  And I don't mean to say this in a braggadocious way.
• 48:58
  Oh, say it.
• 48:58
  OK, I was talking with a guy last week.
• 49:00
  Yeah, he told me, yeah, we started a podcast.
• 49:02
  I said, really?
• 49:03
  He said, yeah, we got to eight and then we quit.
• 49:06
  And I hear that.
• 49:07
  What's the average?
• 49:08
  The average is four, four.
• 49:10
  Most people get the four podcasts.
• 49:12
  And most don't make it past a year, a year.
• 49:15
  We've been going two years plus, plus two years, plus one hundred and twenty episodes.
• 49:20
  And we have had the most amazing guests.
• 49:23
  I sit back in awe.
• 49:25
  I really do.
• 49:25
  It's like today.
• 49:27
  Like you just sit back and go, wow, that's an incredible story.
• 49:32
  Nobody's telling that story but us.
• 49:34
  And we are so...
• 49:34
  Well, there are people telling the story, but on a podcast, right?
• 49:39
  Yes.
• 49:40
  Am I right?
• 49:40
  You are right.
• 49:41
  Just say yes.
• 49:42
  Yes.
• 49:43
  What?
• 49:43
  No, listen.
• 49:44
  Okay, I'm listening.
• 49:45
  We are telling, I think this is what makes Coffee In The Park with Jennifer and Cam so unique, is we are telling all of these different stories.
• 49:54
  Yes.
• 49:54
  There are lots of podcast platforms out there that tell stories.
• 49:58
  Yes.
• 49:58
  But I think the diversity of our stories and our guests is incredible.
• 50:03
  We've had everybody from the famous, to people who just do their work every day.
• 50:08
  It was started because we believe everybody has a story, everybody.
• 50:12
  The story behind the story.
• 50:13
  The story behind the story.
• 50:15
  So if you're listening to us today and you don't think you have a story, wrong, you have a story.
• 50:20
  Everybody has a story.
• 50:21
  Exactly.
• 50:22
  It's incredible.
• 50:23
  Yes.
• 50:24
  And we heard a great story today.
• 50:25
  We sure did.
• 50:25
  Very excited.
• 50:26
  Thanks everybody.
• 50:27
  And we'll see you next time around.
• 50:28
  Thanks everyone.
• 50:29
  See you next week.