The UNSM Capacity Development team supports member First Nations develop capacity in governance and programs:
To build capacity, skills, and professional expertise in our member First Nations through knowledge transfer
To provide advisory support and assistance to communities to increase their success
To engage with communities to ensure capacity development services are relevant, appropriate, and effective
To unite and bring member communities together to increase effectiveness of capacity development initiatives through partnership and sharing of best practices
The Union of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq (UNSM) Capacity Development services department consists of:
Joan Stevens, Director of Capacity Development
Kirstin Ward, Operations Coordinator
Susy Denny, Projects Coordinator
Nilan Marshall, Capacity Development Coordinator
Karly Bernard, Capacity Development Coordinator
Robin Thompson, Governance Manager
Nicholas Cook, Governance Coordinator
Jennifer Jesty, Emergency Manager
Tasha Francis, Emergency Management Coordinator
Kim Milley, L'nu Learning Hub Manager
Darrell Bernard, Infrastructure Manager
Arnelle Paul, Housing Project Coordinator
Wasuek Googoo, Infrastructure Coordinator
*team photo to be updated*
Thus far, co-developing our strategic direction with our member communities has been our main focus in addition to managing Capacity Development projects.
Community Led
Community Support
Collaboration
Culturally Appropriate
In November 2018, we launched a logo contest that sought ideas from Mi’kmaw artists for a $500 cash prize. The contest called for minimalist artwork that would represent the concepts of community strength, good governance, capacity building, and knowledge transfer in a creative yet symbolic way. After much deliberation, we chose a stained-glass art piece called “Mi’kmaq Culture and Resilience” submitted by Carol Sylvester of Membertou. The orange background of the original piece represents our residential school survivors. The Mi’kmaq symbol with each loop symbolizes our stages of life. The four sacred colours, the outer red circle & beadwork symbolizes the resilience of our culture. The double-curve motif and the feather represent the love and strength of our people and culture.
After our winner was decided, work on logo development began. To make it more relevant to our Capacity Development work and our organization, UNSM, we modified some of the colouring, adding our UNSM blue, while maintaining the overall outline of the stained-glass art piece. With the addition of text, the “Union of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq” and “Capacity Development”, our logo was complete!
The UNSM Capacity Development team like to give a huge thank you to the Artist, Carol Sylvester, for submitting her artwork, and to Cageless Content Owner & Operator, Ethan Fenton, for turning Carol’s beautiful artwork into a logo for our team.
