Creating safe, inclusive union spaces is foundational to building worker solidarity and collective strength. This session offers everyday approaches to union members, representatives, and leaders to integrate core values into trauma-informed and empowering inclusion practices.

Using an intersectional lens, we will explore how overlapping identities shape our lived experiences and the benefits of human-centred workplaces that prioritize safety through care. Grounded in Indigenous values, the 7 Rs approach is applied to focus on respect, reciprocity, relevance, responsibility, resilience, resistance, and reclamation. With this framework, participants can consider relational ways to foster supportive environments where dignity and belonging are shared priorities. 

Bio: Cole Kippenhuck (they/them) is a Two Spirit Inuk-settler Labradorian and the owner of Crow Kinship Consulting, a values-based practice rooted in trauma-informed and relational approaches. With twenty-five years experience in community and public sectors, they specialize in transforming organizational structures through a lens of wholeness and reciprocity by providing multi-sector support, training, and facilitation services.