First Nations in Canada are pro-actively engaged in Nation rebuilding, with a focus on developing communities and building healthier citizenships by meeting their challenges and moving forward in positive ways. Achieving those goals will depend, among many other factors, upon an effective First Nations workforce. 

First Nations leaders and employees who work for their Nation (called “Nation workers” in this paper) must continually make informed, strategic, and effective decisions in the best interest of their community members – and they must do so while working within particularly complex socio-economic and legislative environments. This situation leads to a need for focused and meaningful human resource development efforts to ensure that the First Nations workforce is adequately prepared for and supported in undertaking their important work.

In BC, First Nations leaders and community representatives have considered the issue of human resource development, and they have agreed to explore a collective approach to supporting and enhancing this critical component of self-governance. First Nations leaders believe that doing so will significantly strengthen the foundation for ensuring the survival, dignity, and well-being of First Nations people in BC.

At the same time, widespread efforts are underway to increase the availability of adequately trained, well-supported professionals to work in a number of critical sectors of First Nations community health, human, and social development. Those sectors include, among others, health, education, child care, social services, and child and family services.  Numerous First Nations-controlled organizations have been created to pursue that goal, and to be most effective their work will ideally be coordinated and complementary with all of the other human resource development efforts being undertaken within Nations and at the provincial level.

Significant discussion has now taken place regarding possible supports for First Nations leaders, Nation workers, and professionals working in a variety of sectors within First Nations communities, including the potential role for a collective organization to advance this critical work.  This discussion paper describes some of the background and a framework for such an organization and its efforts.