Submitted by: Canadian Forces Liaison Council

Join us for an informative webinar on June 23rd with guest speaker Colonel Mike Vernon, CD/Commander of 41 Canadian Brigade Group. 

Learn more and register for Mission Update Part 1: A behind the senes look at Alberta’s Army Reservists:

A behind the scenes look at who reservists are, what they do, and how the Alberta Reserve is preparing and training to support our communities and country when we need them most. 

Numerous Alberta businesses employ individuals who are members of the Reserve Force. When Alberta faces a disaster – the Covid-19 Pandemic, fires, floods – reservists are asked to respond to the call and assist in the survival and support of our communities. Responding to these calls often pulls reservists away from their regular employment.

Reservists are skilled and talented people who are part-time “citizen soldiers”, sailors and airmen/airwomen. In addition to their military responsibilities, they also work full time in the civilian workforce. They enhance corporate culture, small and large businesses, with the experience they have attained in the military. As a candidate for a position they have a well-earned skill set that goes above and beyond another candidate for the same role. If you already employ a Reservist, you know the benefits they bring to the workplace with both hard and soft skills.

The Canadian Armed Forces provide Reservists with world class training to develop key skills which form not only the foundations of an valuable Reservist but also a highly qualified employee. Employers benefit from their core skills and abilities such as leadership, teamwork, discipline, initiative, determination, problem solving, and the ability to work under pressure.

When you employ a Reservist, they bring their learnings from the military to your organization. In turn, they also contribute their workplace expertise when serving in the military. It’s a win-win for both the organization and the Canadian Armed Forces. Reservists who serve help to provide a safe environment for businesses to thrive and is one of the very reasons many people are proud of our serving members.

The Basics

Reservists are members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) who train and serve with the CAF on a part-time basis. They typically serve on weekday evenings and weekends. From time to time Reservists attend military courses and training that lasts one or two weeks and occasionally longer durations. Reservists have the opportunity to volunteer to serve on domestic and international operations on a full-time basis augmenting the regular component of the CAF. Through floods, fires or ice storms, Reservists are there to help and to keep communities and businesses operating. Their training provides both domestic response and international support – when you employ a Reservist, you in turn, are serving your country.

What is the With Glowing Hearts Initiative?

The With Glowing Hearts – Reservist Support Initiative is an HR program to attract and retain talented employees. The Canadian Armed Forces has trained over 25,000 Reservists who bring exceptional qualifications to an organization or business. Consider the Reserves as a talent pool to source potential employees to support company goals and initiatives. The initiative provides guidance and tools to support both Employers and Reservists and the good work they do together. Employing a Reservist is good for business and it makes your work, and workplace, better – With Glowing Hearts, we stand together supporting our community and country.

How does the program work?

It’s simple – like any other HR initiative, the program becomes an offering to attract employees. For example, a company may already have a maternity leave policy in place, growth programs for leadership, or even policies for internships. The With Glowing Hearts – Reservist Support Initiative creates a “reserve-friendly” culture for an organization to attract, and keep, experienced and valued employees. The turnkey program assets can be used to create awareness through communication channels of choice.

What does the program include?

The program consists of the following elements:

1. Reservists 101: What Reservists offer Employers
2. “With Glowing Hearts” Reservist support customized certificate for Employers
3. “With Glowing Hearts” Employer/Reservist Recognition stickers
4. “With Glowing Hearts” Customized employer support icon (online use)
5. HR & FAQS: Q&A for employing Reservists
6. Military Leave Policy (MLP): Examples of MLP for small and large businesses

What’s next?

• Register for the program or for more information: cflcwithglowinghearts.ca

How can I find out more information for my business?

Employers Supporting Reservists – Canadian Forces Liaison Council

Visit the website: https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/benefits-military/supporting-reservists-employers.html

#WithGlowingHearts thanks employers who support Reservists

June 16, 2021

Alberta’s Distinguished Artist Award Recipients Announced

(Calgary, AB) The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards Foundation is pleased to announce that artist Faye HeavyShield (Blood Reserve, Kainaiwa Nation, AB), writer and filmmaker Cheryl Foggo (Calgary, AB), and dance choreographer Vicki Adams Willis (Calgary, AB), have been selected to receive the 2021 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award.

Arlene Strom, chair of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards Foundation said, “Albertans can be proud of these three whose contributions have pushed the boundaries of art to reflect Indigenous identity and expression; present a more inclusive and diverse view of Alberta’s history; and define the province as a beacon for jazz dance artists. Each has contributed immeasurably to the development of the province’s artists, arts communities and expanding art disciplines.”

Faye HeavyShield, Visual Arts

Faye Heavyshield

Over the past 30 years, Faye HeavyShield has been one of Canada’s pre- eminent artists within Alberta and the Blackfoot Confederacy. Currently living on the Blood Reserve in southwestern Alberta, Faye studied at Alberta University for the Arts in Calgary.

Honouring her Kainaiwa (Blood) Nation, the striking landscape they dwell within and the Blackfoot language which she speaks, Faye HeavyShield’s legacy of three-dimensional art and sculpture including recent installations incorporating photography and delicately constructed paper figures make her a senior figure in the artistic and cultural renaissance of Indigenous nations in the country.

“…My art is a reflection of my environment and personal history as lived in the physical geography of southern Alberta with its prairie grass, river coulees, and wind and an upbringing in the Kainaiwa community. I would say the environment is an extension of myself because it’s always been there, from the time I was a child. It was one of the first things that I saw and smelled. I consider it a part of me. The landscape is an extension of the body because we’re dependent on it, and to flip that, the landscape is dependent on us…” Faye Heavyshield

Beyond her personal practice, Faye is actively involved with her community by working with youth through art programming and creating cultural connections for children in care.

Cheryl Foggo, Playwright, screenwriter, film maker, author

Cheryl Foggo

Creating a more inclusive and diverse view of Alberta’s history through her plays, films, books, articles and multi-media presentations has been Cheryl Foggo’s life work. Profiled in Who’s Who in Black Canada and the recipient of the 2008 national Harry Jerome Award for The Arts, Foggo has applied her talent as a researcher and writer to uncovering the compelling but overlooked stories of Alberta’s Black settlers and

cowboys. Most recently, the award winning National Film Board feature- length documentary, John Ware Reclaimed (2020), highlighted an earlier thriving Black community in the province often left out of the history books.

Her seminal, autobiographical book, Pourin’ Down Rain: A Black Woman Claims Her Place In The Canadian West, is a powerful narrative of Foggo’s ancestors’ journey from enslavement in the United States to Western Canada. The book, first published in 1990, received the distinction of a special 30th anniversary reprint in 2020. Her books for young people: Dear Baobab, I Have Been in Danger and One Thing That’s True have garnered many commendations between them, including One Thing That’s True being short-listed for the Governor General’s Award. In addition to her books, Cheryl Foggo has published prose in more than 40 journals and anthologies.

Two new productions of Foggo‘s plays are scheduled in 2021 with the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton and the Urgency Collective in Calgary, and her short play The Sender is currently available through Toronto’s Obsidian Company’s 21 Black Futures Project. As a cultural activist, mentor and volunteer she advocates for writers and Black artists.

Vicki Adams Willis Performing Arts: Dance

Vicki Adams Willis

Vicki Adams Willis has changed the face of jazz dance in Alberta and Canada. A co-founder nearly 40 years ago of Decidedly Jazz Danceworks (DJD), she is foremost a teacher and choreographer of more than 35 original productions. She is recognized as a true leader in the world of jazz; an acclaimed ground-breaking choreographer who created one of the most unique jazz dance companies in the world, and the key person to ensure Calgary, Alberta as a viable dance centre for serious jazz artists. She has helped to change the very course of the jazz dance art form by influencing students, dancers, musicians and audiences with her strongly researched and brilliantly creative work.

Jazz dance is a misunderstood art form. Born of African parents and of the Black American experience, Vicki Adams Willis acknowledges herself as a guest in this form and has demonstrated her deep understanding of, and utter respect for, the authentic roots and history of jazz through her research, teaching and choreography. The company she co-created in 1984 – Decidedly Jazz Danceworks (DJD) has gained international recognition. It has been referenced in articles, dissertations, anthologies and, most recently, in an award-winning international film: Uprooted–The Journey of Jazz Dance, which had its Canadian premiere at the 2021 Toronto Black Film Festival.

“..These three ground-breaking women have offered important contributions to the arts in Canada. Their creativity has brought new light to their respective disciplines and created countless opportunities for us all to learn, grow and explore fresh ideas. Artists like this are essential to the vibrancy of our communities and we are truly fortunate to have them as cultural leaders in our province and country as a whole…”

Her Honour, the Honourable Salma Lakhani, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta

The laureates will each receive a handcrafted medal, a $30,000 award and a two-week residency at the Banff Centre’s Leighton Artist Studios. The awards patron, the Honourable Salma Lakhani Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, will present the awards at a celebration hosted by the Community of Lac La Biche and Portage College, Lac La Biche campus, at an awards event June 10 and 11, 2022.

The awards are funded through an endowment established with private donations and gifts from the Province of Alberta and Government of Canada. The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta serves as honorary patron of the awards. Since its inception, 23 Distinguished Artists and 63 Emerging Artists have been recognized across Alberta with this significant honour. See details at artsawards.ca

The 2021 Distinguished Artists were chosen from nominations received and reviewed by a jury of experts overseen by the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Jurors for the 2021 Distinguished Artist Awards were Mary-Beth Laviolette, visual arts curator and author; John Estacio, 2017 Distinguished Artist and JUNO nominated composer; Seika Boye, scholar, writer, artist and Assistant Professor, University of Toronto, Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies; Jordan Abel, Nisga’a writer from Vancouver and Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta teaching Indigenous Literatures and Creative Writing.

Click to learn more about the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards Foundation.

Read more on Todayville.com.