COMMUNITY CHAMPIONS

The Commission works to identify and engage with passionate and compassionate members of communities throughout the province. Our Human Rights Community Champions are dedicated to promoting and recognizing the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family. These individuals are committed to furthering public policy in Saskatchewan that ensures every person is free and equal in dignity and rights.

Nicole White founded Moon Time Sisters in January 2017 after learning young people were missing school because they didn’t have access to menstrual products. Since its inception, Moon Time Sisters has expanded to four provinces and has sent products to northern and remote communities across Canada. Moon Time Sisters is the only national, Indigenous-led period equity organization supporting Northern and Indigenous menstruators. They collect and ship menstrual products to remote communities across the country where the products are provided to the community free-of-cost. As a collective, they have partnered with over 65 northern Indigenous communities, and have shipped over 2 million period products to high schools, elementary schools, midwifery organizations, health care centres, Friendship Centres, shelters, food banks, and community programs.

Since 2004, Kate Day has been the facilitator of a school-based mental health team, supporting individuals with intellectual disabilities and co-occurring mental health issues. In her work as a special education teacher in Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools (GSCS), Kate and a colleague, Rosanne Kerr (Coordinator of Student Services GSCS), noticed that mental health supports in the community were suddenly not available if the client had an intellectual disability. Along with Rosanne, Dr. Lee Murray, and Dr. Bruce Gordon, Kate knew this was inequitable, and that youth and young adults with intellectual disabilities could be treated for mental health concerns, could access talk-therapy, and could improve their quality of life with mental health supports. Together with the support of GSCS, they created a team called Meitheal which aims to provide high-quality mental health services for this under-served population; give a rich experience for practicum students to learn about the needs and strengths of youth and young adults with intellectual disabilities; and advocate for services to be provided in the community to this population.

Colleen Christopherson-Cote has worked in community economic development for more than 20 years in both urban and rural communities across Saskatchewan. She has extensive knowledge on the complexity of human service systems and the intricacies of how public policy and practice indirectly and directly impact people. She specializes in building intersectoral collaboratives and currently works as the coordinator for Saskatoon Poverty Reduction Partnership. Over the past 15 years she has worked with collaborations that focused on housing and homelessness, community evaluation, community driven research, safety and wellbeing, harm reduction and substance use, early years, and emergency preparedness.

Colleen weaves webs of relationships that not only break through the confines of system silos, but also disrupt the hierarchies within them that so often prevent timely, holistic action on critical issues.

Dave Nelson has more than 40 years experience as a Registered Psychiatric Nurse and a Registered Social Worker. He has worked with the Canadian Mental Health Association for over 25 years, first as the Director of the Regina Branch, then as the Executive Director of Saskatchewan Division CMHA. He is currently the CMHA-SK Senior Program Consultant.
Dave has had a broad experience in advocacy for improvements to the mental health system, having been an original member of the Minister of Health’s Mental Health Advisory Council for six years, the Premier’s Disabled Persons Advisory Council for four years, a founding member and Past-President of the Mental Health Coalition and the Disability Income Support Coalition as well as numerous local and regional advisory and advocacy committees.
Dave is particularly interested in the history of the mental health system in Saskatchewan and how we can learn from that history to improve the system in the future.