OUR SERVICES
our goal
Our goal is to provide First Nations with effective community & HR solutions to help with the challenges of today. We are confident that we can assist you.
flexible solutions
Flexibility Designed Around Your Schedule and most if not all budgets.
OUR SERVICES
At Okimaw we have 3 areas of practice:
Okimaw Community & HR Services offers a tailored suite of solutions to empower organizations and individuals through strategic support and development. Our specialized divisions include: Professional Development and Training, Organizational Development and Strategic Services. Each division is dedicated to delivering excellence and value, ensuring our clients are equipped for success in today’s dynamic environment.
01. Professional Development & Training Division
Okimaw’s Professional Development and Training Division helps organizations with customized workplace training programs that will better prepare their employees for personal and professional success. From interpersonal skills to advanced human resource training, our programs are highly rated, and most of our clients use our services continuously and in many different program areas.
We have trained over 3,000 Indigenous staff in over 150 First Nations across Turtle Island. Our services can be delivered on client sites, at training retreats or at training events and conferences held in various cities across Canada.
Canada/Provinces Job Grants Programs
We work with First Nations and Indigenous organizations to secure workforce training grants in most Canadian provinces.
Human Resource Support Services
Okimaw provides comprehensive HR support services tailored to the needs of indigenous organizations. This includes assistance with office setup, recruitment, employee contracts and other written documentation including report generation, and performance reviews. Okimaw’s HR support encompasses a wide variety of services aimed at helping indigenous organizations navigate complex HR issues with expertise and cultural sensitivity.
Some of our content includes:
- Recruitment and selection and employee onboarding
- Human Resource Legislation and Strategic HR Goals
- Strategic Human Resources Planning and Staff Training and Development Workplace Safety and Health
- Measuring HR Efficiency and Effectiveness and Performance Management Conflict Management and Managing Complaints, Grievances and Arbitrations
- Employee Benefits and Disability Management
Youth Engagement and Empowerment Programs
Our youth engagement program informs and empowers youth in a participatory process that includes their ideas, expertise, experiences, and perspectives to help them plan and prepare for success and the challenges they will encounter.
The Indigenous Youth Empowerment Training is tailored for youth aged 15 to 29, aiming to cultivate confidence and leadership skills, preparing them to become the next decision- makers in their communities.
This 4-day program includes the following modules:
- Healthy Lifestyle & Career Choices
- Learning Strategies for Success
- Believing in Yourself
Through these focused sessions, participants are equipped with essential tools and guidance to support their personal and professional growth.
Essential Skills Training
Okimaw’s Essential Skills Development Training equips individuals with the knowledge and skills necessary to enter the workforce with confidence and preparedness.
This is a 4-day program focuses on helping participants establish career goals, develop professional ethics, gain a comprehensive understanding of federal and provincial labour laws, understand employment contracts and funding.
The Organizational Development Division leads and delivers programs to support governance and administration of First Nation and Indigenous organizations. This Division serves our clients in the following areas.
Organizational Development
In conducting organizational reviews, we do not approach First Nations as corporate or business entities. We consider the historical, cultural, and aspirational context of the Nation and its people. Our analysis looks beyond operational efficiencies and considers the competing priorities and perspectives of citizens that create additional challenges for governments.
We also recognize that adhering to Western governance systems that displaced traditional systems, is not serving the Nations well. Organizational culture needs to accommodate traditional values while adopting modern best practices to realize sustainable social and economic outcomes.
Okimaw’s Organizational Hierarchy of Needs© model systematically reviews an organization to assess its core strengths and performance relative to potential by considering the following:
- Purpose and Strategy
- Leadership and governance
- Organizational Culture
- People (HR capacity)
- Systems – HR, IT and Financial
Indigenous Law and Policy Development
All organizations need effective and well-rounded policies to manage their administrative and governance systems. For First Nations, policy frameworks include administrative and government functions. Historically, First Nations have relied on adopted and imposed laws of Canada and its provinces and territories.
As First Nations establish their status as sovereign entities, they will need to develop laws and policy frameworks that serve their unique cultural and organizational needs.
Our policy development process is designed to align the policy and governance systems of the organization to strategy, traditions, and culture. This holistic approach bridges the gap between traditional systems and modern approaches to organizational management. By blending the ‘best of both worlds’, we help organizations do what is important while paying close attention to doing things in a way that respects their culture and traditional values.
In addition to developing policy and governance frameworks, we offer programs to facilitate knowledge transfer and enhance capacity for Nations and Indigenous entities to develop and write their own policies.
Funding Support
Many of our programs are eligible for funding support from various programs of Canada and provincial government. As our client, you will have our support to prepare and submit funding requests to appropriate programs and funding agencies.
03. Strategic Services Division
Okimaw’s strategic services include the development of strategic plans that set long-term goals as the organization’s North Star. We also help develop comprehensive economic development plans to support the pursuit of nation building.
Strategic Planning
For First Nations and Indigenous organizations, Okimaw strategic planning support helps clients understand that setting an organizational strategy is not an event; rather, it is an important activity that establishes clear goals and launches a continuous process of prioritizing efforts, resource allocation, gaining support from citizens and organizational staff for the Nation’s goals, and ensuring goals are supported by data and well understood reasoning.
We focus on intergenerational sustainability. We understand our clients’ deep-rooted desire to look after the well-being of Turtle Island’s present-day residents without sacrificing the future of generations. We help our clients ask the hard questions about how well they are using available resources to achieve their goals.
Economic and Community Development Planning
We define economic development as a coordinated set of sustainable plans (policies and actions) to utilize the human, financial and resource assets of a nation to improve the economic and social well-being of its citizens.
We help Nations develop plans to provide equitable access to food, shelter, adequate food and shelter, healthcare, education, and social amenities for their citizens.
The sustenance and continuity of these requires economic development strategies as a mechanism to create wealth for future generations by building equity and assets. Our process clearly identifies the cyclical relationship between total economic output and the mutual dependence between sustainable economic development and the well-being of a Nation.
Our economic development plans focus on the following elements to help create achievable and sustainable economic development plans.
- New business opportunities and enhancement of existing business activities and associated economic output.
- Financial capital requirements and potential sources.
- Human resource requirements and skill gap analysis.
- Timelines and long-term sustainability.
- Risk analysis including mitigation strategies, key performance indicators and measures of success.
