{"id":558,"date":"2023-09-06T11:13:39","date_gmt":"2023-09-06T18:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/tcecchetti\/?p=558"},"modified":"2023-09-06T11:13:39","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T18:13:39","slug":"the-indigemind-departmental-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/tcecchetti\/the-indigemind-departmental-merger\/","title":{"rendered":"The IndigeMind Departmental Merger\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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CALS692 Blog#10<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Victoria Native Friendship Centre is currently under a massive organizational restructuring. The purpose of the restructure is to streamline services and merge departments to improve overall supports for Indigenous folks both on and off reserve. It is a transition that the organization has wanted to do for some time now. However, \u201cthe challenge [of organizational change]\u2026has become even more significant\u2026as current change management best practices are increasingly inadequate to deal with the accelerated pace of change\u201d (Kerber & Buono, 2018, p. 56). There is much change on the horizon but I do believe that, overall, it will benefit the growth of programs like IndigeMind allowing for additional support and collaboration from within the organization.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IndigeMind is its own department at the VNFC along with being its own climate action program. The department still consists of one person, myself, and the current merge will allow me to collaborate more with existing staff at the organization and, most importantly, utilize the services of other staff members whose tasks will include helping me brand and promote the program within Greater Victoria. Although I am excited to be getting some support I am also hesitant about too much promotion for a program that, in many ways, needs to stay small for the time being. Until I have secured more grant funding to hire part time or permanent IndigeMind staff any and all IndigeMind related tasks fall to me, as I am the creative mind behind the program, the facilitator, the promoter, the marketer, the administrator, and the curator. I currently operate the duties and roles of so many job titles and there is only so much capacity I have. Additionally, if we promote too much how would I be able to manage interest? I don\u2019t want to have a waitlist of 50 kids like every other youth specific service on the Island. I firmly believe that once IndigeMind is fully promoted we will need to have multiple cohorts running simultaneously. Up until this point, much of our promotion and recruitment has come from word of mouth and my extensive network from years of working for the VNFC. Things take time to grow and develop and there is no need to rush it. My goal is that IndigeMind is around for a very long time, whether it is run solely by me or not. It is for the youth and our future leaders and rushing a new program can, unfortunately, lead to its demise.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The merger of departments will allow for me to run the IndigeMind program during the day out of our youth drop in space at the Friendship Center. I am working on scheduling local restoration work that will allow for more accessibility within the program as opposed to necessary vehicle transportation. Youth interested in getting supports or services from the Youth Department will have their first contact point be IndigeMind. This will help me with recruitment and also allow youth who do not have support workers to still get connected to the Friendship Centre through the immense benefits of land based programming. It is a change that will be positive for IndigeMind but may take time to come to fruition just as any change does. Change can be difficult but it is necessary for growth. Russ (2008) adds that \u201corganizations do not change through automation\u2026rather, change is implemented and sustained through human collaboration\u201d (pp. 199-200). May the journey continue. Onwards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerber, K., & Buono, A. (2018). The rhythm of change leadership<\/a>. Organization Development Journal, 36<\/em>(3), 55-72.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russ, T. L. (2008). Communicating Change: A Review and Critical Analysis of Programmatic and Participatory Implementation Approaches. Journal of Change Management<\/em>, 8<\/em>(3-4), 199\u2013211. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/14697010802594604<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CALS692 Blog#10 The Victoria Native Friendship Centre is currently under a massive organizational restructuring. The purpose of the restructure is to streamline services and merge departments to improve overall supports for Indigenous folks both on and off reserve. It is a transition that the organization has wanted to do for some time now. However, \u201cthe … Continue reading The IndigeMind Departmental Merger\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":944,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cals-692","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/tcecchetti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/tcecchetti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/tcecchetti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/tcecchetti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/944"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/tcecchetti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/tcecchetti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":560,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/tcecchetti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558\/revisions\/560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/tcecchetti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/tcecchetti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webspace.royalroads.ca\/tcecchetti\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}