New executive director appointed to the Willow Cree Healing Lodge
Trent Mitchell is the new executive director of the Willow Cree Healing Lodge, located on the Beardy’s & Okemasis First Nation.
By Rod Andrews
Trent Mitchell may be the new executive director for the Willow Cree Healing Lodge, located on the Beardy’s & Okemasis First Nation, but he is not an unfamiliar face at the Correctional Service of Canada facility as he put in time at the institution once before – of course as a staff member.
Mitchell took over his current duties late last year and has been getting into his role as the fourth director of the facility since it formally opened in April 2005.
A relative latecomer to corrections work, Mitchell started as a corrections officer with the Saskatchewan Penitentiary in Prince Albert in 1999. Since that time he has held a number of jobs in the Saskatchewan north CSC Region, including serving as parole officer, acting unit manager, chief programmer and associated warden of maximum security before transferring to Saskatoon.
While in Saskatoon Mitchell was segregation oversight manager for the region and was involved in an administrative role with security for the whole region.
After that, in October 2007, Mitchell was appointed deputy director of the Willow Cree Healing Lodge, but returned to Prince Albert to serve as assistant warden in charge of operations, before his appointment to the healing lodge.
Married, Mitchell has a degree in history and a masters’ degree in the history of science.
With a background in minimum, medium and maximum security units, his job at the WCHL touches on the minimum security end, keeping the integrity of the correctional facility in line with its purpose within the CSC.
He also has two other roles, that of business manager and overseeing the rehabilitation aspect of the lodge.
As business manager, Mitchell provides leadership, stewardship and oversees a 40-bed minimum-security facility, eight beds in five units, with a staff of 48 full and part time personnel.
He said the facility has an operating budget of $4.5 million, which employs people from the local First Nation and surrounding area, which makes the facility a major player in the life of the community, both on and off the reserve.
The facility provides a transition place for those who follow First Nations beliefs in between maximum and medium facilities and their ultimate release to outside of prison walls.
The first thing that is different between the WCHL and the rest of the correctional system is that those at the healing lodge are called Nicisanak, a Cree word that describes an individual on a healing journey, as opposed to inmate or prisoner.
“My second role is to help with the rehabilitation of the Nicisanak, helping with their integration in society by providing programs for them here.”
Mitchell’s third role is to work with the staff and Nicisanak “to make this a healing lodge…a place of reintegration of Aboriginal people, or those who follow Aboriginal lifestyles, into the community”.
He said the facility is provided with considerable support to meet the challenges, with the involvement of members of the community being an important element in their success.
Overall, this aspect is in reality a balancing act.
“We have to work within government regulations, balancing law and policy with healing that involves traditional oral and historical ties which is the First Nations connection to this land.”
Mitchell said the WCHL gets good support from the community, first through the board of directors and through “a whole lot of volunteers who come in and help”.
As well as the resident elders, a number of elders from the Beardy’s First Nation provide teachings, as well as in AA and NA meetings.
He said various organizations are involved, including those who have had Nicosia help with various projects right within the community and that has included on the reserve, Duck Lake and Rosthern.
Mitchell said it is positive to see “an engaged community” supporting the WCHL which makes the facility a “community within a community” that provides positive support to those undergoing the “healing journey”.
Additional support for the WCHL comes from the citizen’s advisory community, which includes a number of individuals from the surrounding rural and urban communities who provide advice and supportive efforts.
“We have a lot of people providing support, advice and guidance in making this a success and I am very fortunate to have these people.”
Volunteers are always welcome and can contact the WCHL at anytime.
Mitchell said that ongoing reviews of the facility are taking place and changes, if any, will be announced when they are
available.
“Our immediate goal is (to) get as many people from here into society, so we would like to have more contacts with those in the communities where those from here are going once they are released.
“This place works because of the good support of the local community. We are blessed to have such a supportive community and to have a staff that is dedicated to the process of healing,” Mitchell added.
The concept to bring the WCHL started in the 1990s with the backing of Beardy’s & Okemasis First Nation. Construction of the facility took place in the early part of this century, with staff trained in 2004, getting ready for the first intake of Nicisanak, which took place in 2005.
