PRHA Media Release |

Working together with industry partners, the Parkland Regional Health Authority (PRHA) continues efforts to strengthen its Aboriginal health strategy. In conjunction with Aboriginal and Northern Affairs, Manitoba Employment and Training and Manitoba’s Office of Rural and Northern Health, the PRHA will be establishing a Human Resources Office for Aboriginal Employment in Dauphin. The new office will support the main office which opened across from the Swan Valley Health Centre in Swan River in April 2010.

The office, along with a Human Resources (HR) Liaison for Aboriginal Employment, will be located at the Dauphin Friendship Centre for at least one year under the terms of an agreement that was signed with the funding partners mentioned above.

The PRHA’s Aboriginal HR initiative is aimed at increasing the number people who self-identify as Aboriginal within the Health Region’s workforce. Three main program objectives have been developed. They include:

· Increasing the percentage of self-reported Aboriginal employees at all levels of the organization to be representative of the Parkland population over time;

· Creating a welcoming and supportive environment where Aboriginal employees can develop and prosper within the PRHA workplace; and

· Providing improved service to Aboriginal peoples through a workforce that demonstrates cultural awareness and responsiveness and through increased representation of Parkland’s First Nation, Metis and non-status population.

The PRHA has an Aboriginal population of about 28 per cent (of those who have self-identified themselves of being of aboriginal descent.) The PRHA also plans to implement an Aboriginal Advisory Council to provide ongoing guidance to the Region as it moves towards meeting key goals and strategies associated with its Aboriginal human resources initiative.