JANICE ABBOTT

Places She's Mentored: Cortes Island, Haida Gwaii (Masset, Old Masset, Queen Charlotte City), and Vancouver (for Mentor Workshops)

Janice Abbott is the executive director of Atira Women's Resource Society, a single mandate organization the mission of which is the elimination of all forms of violence against women and children. Since becoming the executive director of Atira Janice has lead the organization from a single transition house located in South Surrey to a large, multi-service agency with 11 sites located across the Lower Mainland and more than 20 programs. Described by the Vancouver Sun as one of Canada’s leading social entrepreneurs, Abbott conceived of and launched Atira Property Management Inc. in 2002. Atira Property Management Inc. is a wholly-owned for-profit subsidiary of Atira Women's Resource Society. All of the profits earned by the property management company are donated to Atira Women's Resource Society to support its social profit activities. Janice is of Secwepemc, Norwegian and other ambiguous ancestry. She is mostly happy and mostly harmless.

PAUL ABBOTT

Places He's Mentored: Masset and Old Masset

Paul Abbott is a teacher and a counselor. He has been teaching students from almost every corner of the globe for 15 years. Currently, he works at a community college in Vancouver, in a bridge program for foreign students who wish to attend university in Canada, teaching reading, research, presentation, and writing skills. As a counselor, Paul has worked with First Nations clients, and his long-term interests are in supporting aboriginal peoples in their struggle for social, political, and economic justice in Canada.

“I believe in the power of stories to to transform us, and our world. In fashioning our stories, we give ourselves a better sense of who we are, and what we value. In telling our stories, we take a stand, because they express not only our perspective on the world as it is, but also on how we think it should be. For far too long, too many Aboriginal stories have been told by people outside of their communities, and are thus stories about them, rather than their own. It is my hope that our project can offer a place for Aboriginal youth to tell and be strong in their own stories.”

MICHAEL BEDNAR

Places He's Mentored: Cortes Island, Haida Gwaii (Masset, Old Masset, Queen Charlotte City), Vancouver (for Mentor Workshops)

Michael is a professional photographer who specializes in nature and travel photography. He became fascinated with pictures and the wider world as a child but studied and worked in forestry, fisheries and wildlife before finally setting out to explore the world around him. Travel reignited his passion for photography and he also discovered a profound appreciation for the diversity he encountered in his journeys to Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the Mediterranean. Michael studied photography and worked as a photojournalist, heading the photography department of a daily paper before setting out as freelance photographer. He is constantly learning more about photography and the world around him. Michael finds working with youth in the digital storytelling program incredibly rewarding and is committed to expanding and improving the program.

The first step to becoming a mentor is to take one of our Mentor Training Workshops. For more information click here.