Executive Director Terry LeBlanc with Providence Interim President David Johnson.
NAIITS board members present at signing. (L to R) Terry LeBlanc, Adrian Jacobs, Sharri Russell, Ray Aldred, Wendy Beauchemin Peterson, and Vincent Yellow Old Woman.
WINNIPEG, MB—Providence University College and The North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies (NAIITS) signed an agreement in principle to offer a Bachelor’s degree in Community Development Studies. The program will be designed and delivered by Indigenous people and will provide learning-by-doing through incorporating a significant component of in-community internship. The degree will begin accepting students in the fall of 2013 with a program start January 2014.
“We have unrealized capabilities as a people. This training will build on our capacity by providing practical skills in the context of sound community development theory,” said Mi’kmaq scholar Terry LeBlanc, Executive Director of NAIITS.
David Johnson, Interim President of Providence University College and Providence Theological Seminary, and Cameron McKenzie, Academic Dean at PUC, note that this partnership will create an opportunity for Providence to embrace the insight, skill, and experience of First Nations scholars and communities in a mutually creative relationship. “Who better to teach about community development than Indigenous people?” asked Ray Aldred, Chairperson, of NAIITS. “We have been slowly rebuilding our communities. After more than a century-and-a-half assimilation attempts, we have survived and now we are beginning to flourish.” “This marks a vital shift in the way that we approach Indigenous education,” said Catherine Rust-Akinbolaji, a faculty member at Providence, “not top-down programming for, but bottom-up partnering with.”
The Providence/NAIITS agreement marks the beginning of another degree partnership inspired by NAIITS’ commitment to deliver culture specific programs for Indigenous people.
