National Day of Mourning: April 28

April 28: National Day of Mourning

April 28 is a day for us to remember those that have been injured, become ill, or died in the workplace. It is also a day for us to look forward and re-commit to working safely to prevent incidents from occurring.

This year please join SAFE Workers of Tomorrow in a Leaders Walk from the Union Centre to the Manitoba Legislative Building. Meet in the foyer of the Union Centre (275 Broadway, Winnipeg) at 11:45 AM. The walk will commence at 12:00 Noon. You are welcome to stay for a press conference which will start at 12:15 PM. A new video featuring the story of Michael Skanderberg, a 19-year old worker who was electrocuted and killed in the workplace, will be shown following the press conference.

All are welcome. Bring your friends, c0-workers, and kids.

Many workplaces are also joining in our Tag Day to raise awareness on April 28. If you would like to participate and require tags (stickers), posters or coin collection boxes, please
contact our office at (204) 992-2988.

National Volunteer Week

April 17 - 23 is National Volunteer Week!

During this week we salute our dedicated SWOT volunteers, who work so hard and give so much of their time and energy to communicating the prevention message to young and new workers.

Between September 1, 2004 and April 15, 2005 we made a record-breaking 604 presentations to 13 744 students throughout Manitoba. This could not have been accomplished without the help of our 200+ volunteers scattered throughout the province. The volunteers gave a total of 545 hours spent in the classroom and an additional 475.5 hours spent travelling to and from presentations for a whopping total of 1020.5 hours of volunteer time!

To acknowledge National Volunteer Week, we have added a Volunteer page to our website. Visit http://www.workersoftomorrow.com to view the new page. New volunteers can visit the webpage to read about how to become a volunteer speaker and to sign up. We hope that this will make it a little easier for our volunteers to find out about how to get involved.

There will be speakers training sessions coming up for our volunteer speakers. Stay tuned for more info!

Thanks again to our "SWOT TEAM" for your commitment and enthusiasm. We couldn't do it without you!

The new digs

SAFE Workers of Tomorrow is no longer in the building!

As of March 31st the SAFE Workers of Tomorrow will be working out of the offices at 3-1680 Notre Dame, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Our phone numbers and email addresses remain the same.

We got a couple pictures of the offices below. Check 'em out.

The reception area (Maggie's desk). Dave's desk is just to the right.


Kerilyn's office.


Jim and I share an office. This is it.


Ellen's new office.


Feel free to call us and stop by.

The AMC Youth Conference

We were invited to speak at the annual Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Regional Youth Conference on Thursday, March 31, 2005. It was held in the Opaswayak Cree Nation at Joe A. Ross School. It went well.

I had about 17 Aboriginal youth in my presentation and they all seemed to enjoy MY delivery of the material (hahahahaha, just kiddin')... quite a few of the participants understood the importance of the subject and shared some personal stories about workplace injuries.

On Friday, I sat in on a resolution session. It was cool. During the session, the young folks identified subjects that they felt were of utmost importance in their communities. I was happy to see that a couple of them identified Occupational Health and Safety awareness and training as one such area. They wanted more training and better access to information. I gave'em the thumbs up and spoke a little about what we do.

As always, I took a couple pictures.

A tree in OCN.


The flight back to Winnipeg.

Neepawa, Ste. Rose du Lac and Gilbert Plains

It's been a super busy week doing presentation. I kicked off Monday morning doing presentations to nearly 150 students at Neepawa Collegiate. Ed Hinsburg was there to give me a hand, and his help and expertise is always appreciated. Thanks Ed! We were able to get some students to try on some safety equipment like protective aprons, gloves and a fall restraint harness.

I followed up with Ste. Rose du Lac and Gilbert Plains on Tuesday. At Ste. Rose School we were able to have the S1 students join the S2, S3 and S4 students for the presentations. The more the better that's for sure. The more students hear about our program the better chance they have at successfully navigating a safe work experience. After I was done there, I jumped in the truck and headed off for Gilbert Plains. The S3 and S4 group needed some waking up, so I got them involved in an unsafe work refusal role play which went well. Since it's so important for this to be done correctly, I thought it would be best to let them play it out. The S1 and S2 group were fantastic. Lots and lots of good questions and good group participation. I hope they all have a safe work experience. Thanks so much!

-Dave

Urban Circle Presentation

Maggie and I presented to a group at the Urban Circle Training Centre on Tuesday. It was a lot of fun.

The building is super nice too.

Check the pictures.

The main entrance to the building.


Maggie going through Hazard Recognition.


The sky light in the classroom.

Winnipeg Rotary Career Symposium

We set up shop at the Winnipeg Rotary Career Symposium a couple weeks back. It was crazy!

Lots of students and lots of interest.

The MTS Centre is a nice facility... the only thing that we're gonna need for next year is a little more space along the aisles and one of those private boxes (just kiddin').

Special thanks to Shaun Roemich for taking pictures of us; they turned out well and I think generated a lot more interest in our bouth (it made it looked like we were models or movies stars or something).

Check out the pictures.

Me catching up with my Junior High science teacher.


Ellen and I entertaining questions.


Maggie informing a participant about what we do.

2005 Trappers Festival

February 16 and 17, 2005 S.W.O.T. and the MB Safety Council were in The Pas, MB for the 2005 Trappers Festival. We set up booths at the Otineka Mall in O.C.N., The Pas. This was a great opportunity for both of our organizations to meet new people, and tell them what we offer.

The MB Safety Council was represented by one of their Safety Officers, Al Roschuk. He brought all the cool toys for "show and tell". Al was able to talk with people about the machines that he brought and the programs that the MB Safety Council offers.

Al and I also had the chance to be in the parade for the festival. This was a fun and new experience for us both.

For more info. On courses offered by Al and the Mb Safety Council, check out their web site at www.mbsafety.org


Maggie at the booth in Otineka Mall.

MB Safety Council/SAFE Workers of Tomorrow Booths



Our Parade Chariot


Until we meet again, Thanks for the great time!

YMCA/YWCA

Maggie and I had the chance yesterday to speak with a group of young adults involved in a youth employment program. This was a great group to speak with. There were lots of good questions about everything from hazards to rights to WCB. The more inquisitive the better. We also heard some terrible stories about injuries some of them had sustained from work. We hope our advice can help those in the future. Lots of handshakes at the end. Thanks everyone!

-Dave

Two BRIDGE(s)

This past week I had the opportunity to do presentations for the BRIDGE programs at both Oak Park High School and Shaftesbury High School. These are very enjoyable because the students eventually get out into the working world and it's good to give them a heads up for what's out there.

Oak Park was a great presentation. The students were very involved with stories of their own and lots of good questions (keep those coming when you start your jobs as well). I had the opportunity to present for the first time with Kim Hamilton from the Worker's Compensation Board. This was Kim's first opportunity to volunteer with us and we sincerely appreciate her coming out. She covered all the bases on WCB, and is looking forward to helping out with more in our presentation next time around. Thanks very much Kim!

Shaftesbury was lots of fun as well. This is where I first started out doing presentations a few months back and it was great to see new faces in the crowd eager to take in the information. Maggie and I were sidekicking for eachother and as always, we did fine. Thanks very much.

-Dave