Storybank

It was minus 17 C, and the weak winter sun shone for only a few short hours in the northern Alberta hamlet of Janvier/Chard on January 12, 2010, the day the Caribbean nation of Haiti was struck by a catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake.

It's hard to imagine two more divergent communities: culturally, geographically, climatically. But the children in Janvier/Chard identified with the Haitian people, and were moved to act when they heard of the devastation that overwhelmed the more than three million people near the earthquake epicentre in and around the Haitian capital of Port au Prince.

Students in grades K – 9 at Father R. Perrin School in Janvier/Chard got to work, posting a fundraising chart in their school and beginning a campaign to raise money in their 300-person community. The kids involved numbered fewer than ninety, but they pulled out all the stops, including the ones in their own piggy banks, to raise funds from a population of less than 200 adults in this hamlet that is home to the Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation and the Chard Métis community. The school raised $1,824.

But the story doesn't end there. A recently-hired Community Coordinator of a pilot project supported by five oil sands companies received a challenge from the children of the school for these oil sands companies to match the money raised. The oil sands companies have formed a collaborative network called the Oil Sands Leadership Initiative, OSLI for short, and they are "committed to achieving significant improvement in environmental, social and economic performance in developing Canada's world-scale oil sands resource." These five companies are ConocoPhillips Canada, Nexen Inc., Statoil (Canada), Suncor Energy Inc. and Total E&P Canada. Each company was pleased to match the money raised by the school, and two of the OSLI companies doubled the amount raised.

On March 25, 2010, the Father R. Perrin school student body presented a cheque of $14,600 for Haitian relief efforts to a representative of the Canadian Red Cross, who had made the 100 kilometre trip from Fort McMurray for the ceremony. It was more than a proud day for the community; it was the day when the children of Janvier/Chard established themselves as global citizens.

"The remarkable thing about this whole process was how much the kids really understand," remarks Lynne Perry-Reid Total's Community Engagement Coordinator. "The Principal asked them about Haiti during the cheque presentation, and found that even the youngest can tell you it is an island nation in the Caribbean, and had suffered a massive earthquake. It's been a real learning process where the kids have made that leap to thinking outside of themselves."

The OSLI Sustainable Communities Working Group, which has been working with the community of Janvier/Chard, is banking on the continued involvement and energy of the community's youth. A three year pilot project has been launched in the community, unique in the region due to the leadership shown by the community itself, and the youth in particular.

The sustainable communities pilot project begins with the idea of having the community determine vision and direction for their future.

"We started with basic discussions in the community – Helen Jacobs from Conoco Phillips took the lead and held workshops with the kids, and asked them what their vision for success in their community would be. The kids were very clear, they were amazing, and they know exactly what they see success as," explains Total's Perry-Reid. "They mention a safe community, a community with no alcohol, drugs or smoking, a caring community."

The sustainable community pilot project has three phases: project design, implementation (three years) and then infrastructure support. The project design is based on the community determining what it wants to undertake, and includes a formal relationship with Carleton University and the Ghost River Rediscovery. Carleton University has extensive experience in community development projects, particularly in Canada's north and Aboriginal communities. Ghost River Rediscovery is a non-profit organization that has experience in cultural education programs based on aboriginal traditions and values. The project design phase in Janvier/Chard was concluded by the end of 2009. Implementation of the pilot project began in January 2010, and will occur over the next three years. The final phase of the project is infrastructure support, the details of which will be identified by the community during the three-year implementation period.

It is OSLI's goal to develop and implement this community and youth-led project in a number of other communities in the hope that truly listening to local communities' young people will result in long-term community success and sustainability.

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