JEDI’s Virtual Plenary Recap - Building Better Together 2 - Day 3

Here is the summary of the last day of the 3-part Building Better Together 2 Virtual Plenary. This session continued our discussion about identifying needs for communities, making funds more accessible, the opportunity for economic growth and community growth, developing stronger strategies for self-determination, and identifying economic leakages.  

To watch the full third day: JEDI's Building Better Together Virtual Plenary: Day 3 

During the webinar we had multiple opportunities for discussions in breakout rooms. Within each room the participants were encouraged to engage, create their own action plans, and to come up with ideas on how they would implement those plans. Our first 3 breakout room topics included: 

  • Room A - Understanding the impacts of Covid-19 and to determining what things can be done when moving forward post-Covid.  

  • Room B - Understanding how-to build relationships with partners, communities, and organizations.  

  • Room C - Understanding the obstacles that arise, along with an action plan to avoid these obstacles.  

Here is a summary of the key highlights from Room A – Understanding Impacts of Covid-19: 

  • Flexibility of working from home  

  • Companies being accommodating  

  • Less business travels 

  • Learning lessons from the pandemic, being prepared and how to move forward  

  • Being educated on the policies and procedures of Covid-19  

  • Wellness programs within workplaces 

Listen to the recap of Understanding Impacts of Covid-19 here: Building Better Together Plenary Day 3: Breakout Session 1, Room A 

Here is a summary of the key highlights from Room B – Understanding Building Relationships:  

  • How to improve cultural awareness in organizations  

  • How to increase Indigenous representation in your organization  

  • The importance of understanding what communities want/need  

  • How to make connections and create ongoing relationships  

  • It’s important to listen, hear, and understand  

Listen to the recap of Understanding Building Relationships here: Building Better Together Plenary Day 3: Breakout Session 1, Room B 

Here is a summary of the key highlights from Room C – Understanding Overcoming Obstacles:  

  • Lack of knowledge and understanding of relatively complex financial systems  

  • Lack of project management and confidence in proposals and training  

  • Potential of creating incentives for funding initiatives for training  

  • Capacity building specifically targeted at youth 

  • Importance of encouraging apprenticeships  

Listen to the recap of Understanding Overcoming Obstacles here: Building Better Together Plenary Day 3: Breakout Session 1, Room C 

For the second set of breakout sessions of the plenary, there were two rooms:

  • Room A - Understanding key opportunities, action plan and potential implementation

  • Room B - Understanding recommendations to stakeholders, action plan and potential implementation.  

Here is a summary of the key highlights from Room A - Understanding key opportunities: 

  • There are real opportunities economically for growth and job creation within First Nation communities

  • Opportunities in multiple areas of tourism 

    • Eco-tourism 

    • Cultural experiences within communities  

  • Opportunities in IT, construction, and health care system  

  • Sharing these opportunities with our networks to encourage growth within the sectors above and reaching out to communities to understand what their needs are. 

Listen to the recap of Understanding Key Opportunities, Action Plan and Potential Implementation Building Better Together Plenary Day 3: Breakout Session 2, Room A 

Here is a recap of the key highlights from Room B - Understanding recommendations to stakeholders: 

  • Identifying economic leakages to create more meaningful projects and programs 

  • Making funds more accessible  

  • Identifying needs for the communities by the communities  

  • Providing follow ups for proposals  

  • Developing strategies for self determination  

We experienced some technical difficulties with the final breakout session, but you can find the recap of the last session at 40:40 of the very top video above.   

We want to thank the participants and the guest speakers for being a part of our Virtual Plenary! It was a great 3 days!

If you missed the overviews from the first 2 days of the plenary, you can find them here: 

JEDI’s Virtual Plenary Recap - Building Better Together 2 - Day 1 — Joint Economic Development Initiative (jedinb.ca) 

JEDI’s Virtual Plenary Recap - Building Better Together 2 - Day 2 — Joint Economic Development Initiative (jedinb.ca)