Three Student Services counsellors had the opportunity to provide support to La Loche for a week in both February and March after the tragic school shooting in January.
During a board meeting for the Southeast Cornerstone School Division in September, the three Student Service Counsellors shared their experiences of spending time in the community of La Loche.
Dan Graf, Marg Phenix and Kate Dammann expressed appreciation for the support back home, as well as training formerly received from and the opportunity to work alongside Kevin Cameron from the Canadian Centre for Threat Assessment and Trauma Response.
They also collaborated with other professionals who formed part of the Traumatic Response Team which was run by staff members of the Northern Lights School Division.
“The Traumatic Response Team consisted of members of our school division while we were there, the Prairie Valley School Division, counsellors from mental health and other services, and representatives from their school division,” said Graf.
“Our role was to offer support to people who had been impacted by the tragic shooting, so it was basically everyone in the community,” said Graf.
“The people in La Loche were very open and willing to accept the help that was offered. People were willing to share their stories. They were open, they were honest, they were warm and they allowed us into their lives and into their culture.”
“Another thing that was incredibly positive was the people that we had the opportunity to work with during the two weeks,” said Graf. “It was an incredible learning experience.”
Dammann said that she felt that her life had changed forever from the experience. “I had a lens of what I was going to, but the experience truly changed my view.”
“The first time leaving the community (in February) was really hard, because we knew it was still a community that was really raw, and still in trauma mode,” said Dammann.
“The second time we went up to La Loche was totally different. The first week, the community was traumatically open, they were in a trauma state, but open to the supports and open to the conversation.”
“But by the time we returned the second time, they had seen so many counsellors and so many people, they had become traumatically closed.”
Dammann was truly appreciative of the training support that the counsellors had received. “We are also grateful that we work in a data-driven school division, because we were able to provide support to the community of La Loche in a different way.”
“We tracked data on how many people had accessed service, and how many people sought service on a repeat basis. Then we were able to assess the people were more at risk by our second visit, than our first initial visits.”
From her experience, Dammann felt that the whole Threat Assessment and Trauma Response team went above and beyond what was expected.
She noted that the lens Student Service counsellors is a lot different than what teaching staff provides to the students. “We see the world in children’s lives from a 100 per cent emotional level, compared to academically. We are always looking for what can help them grow emotionally, so they can also grow mentally stronger.”
