Council, HPFC to find Common Ground

Sally Hamelin, the executive director of the High Prairie Native Friendship Centre, is pleased to be in on the ground floor of the Common Ground Initiative. She is positive that a lot of good things will come out of the process.

Mac Olsen
South Peace News

It could be a precedent to establish co-operation in many areas between municipalities and Aboriginal groups across the province The Town of High Prairie and the High Prairie Native Friendship Centre are participating in a pilot project called the Common Ground Initiative. Town manager Larry Baran discussed this issue during the council meeting on March 26. Baran said the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) and the Alberta Native Friendship Centres Association (ANFCA) are supporting this pilot project, and High Prairie, Red Deer, Rocky Mountain House and Slave Lake are participating. “The Common Ground Initiative is an ongoing effort to enhance and support local relationships, build meaningful community-based partnerships and collaborations, and create the capacity to improve the quality of life for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in our region,” says Baran, who is the representative for the Town of High Prairie. Municipal and Aboriginal facilitators have to be hired and trained before any meetings take place. The High Prairie Native Friendship Centre has already hired its facilitator, Dorothy Wright, says executive director Sally Hamelin. She is pleased to be in on the ground floor with this pilot project. “It feels really good, because it proves to me that this friendship centre is making progress,” says Hamelin. ”In the last year, we’ve been recognized as one of the friendship centres that’s moving ahead. Depending on how successful we are, they will take what we learn … to use as a toolkit for the rest of the province.” Hamelin is also positive a lot of good things will come out of the work done with the Town of High Prairie. The Common Ground Initiative has its roots in Edmonton. In 2006, the City of Edmonton developed an Accord Relationship Document that was targeted towards Aboriginal groups within that city. “It was a two-year initiative that discovered some common issues relevant to Aboriginal people, and then created action circles that are on-going in the city,” says Debbie Coulter, the community development coordinator for AFNCA in Edmonton. “They provide opportunities for the Aboriginal community to meet and discuss with non-Aboriginal community members.” In 2007, the ANFCA and AUMA discussed the possibility of setting up pilot projects with communities that have a large Aboriginal population, and then put the Common Ground Initiative into a memorandum of agreement (MOA). There are criteria for participation. For instance, the friendship centre and municipality must agree to participate. In addition, there has to be a central location for Aboriginal groups to meet with their non-Aboriginal counterparts. High Prairie meets this requirement because of its close proximity of First Nations and Metis settlements. The work on the initiatives will be completed by August or September 2008. An action plan for community development will then be devised. The Aboriginal facilitators will then become community development workers so they can carry on the work identified through the process. Once all the work is done in the four communities, all of the information will be put into a tool kit for other friendship centres to use. A presentation about the Common Ground Initiative will be held in the council chamber at 2 p.m. on May 1.

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