Growing up, Sydney Stenekes was taught to help others however she could.
Whether teaching kids how to skate or speak English, or serving as a student trustee for her school board, she learned “to love and respect everyone and treat others the way you would want to be treated.”
That sense of social responsibility has stayed with her ever since, powering her through a University of Alberta master of science in risk and community resilience that is now helping her fulfil a passion to support communities in responding to various social issues and promote community well-being.
Graduating this week from the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences, Stenekes credits her degree with guiding her collaborative work to support rural, remote and Indigenous communities in responding to homelessness in Alberta.
“It’s given me the confidence to engage with communities of diverse cultures and backgrounds.”
As director of rural homelessness initiatives for the Rural Development Network, she works closely with various partners to manage funding applications for the Reaching Home program.
The work is complex, but she’s able to navigate it thanks to a foundation built by her master’s thesis, which focused on working in collaboration with Kátł’odeeche First Nation in the Northwest Territories to design a community-based, culturally driven water monitoring program.
Part of a larger U of A project called Tracking Change, and inspired by her supervisor Brenda Parlee’s work with northern communities, Stenekes’ thesis gave her a solid grounding in community-based research.
Listening closely to elders and other members of Kátł'odeeche First Nation, she worked to carefully document their traditional ecological knowledge, which gave her “a deep appreciation for the process of building relationships and respect for Indigenous peoples’ relationships to the land.”
Funded by UAlberta North, she was then able to travel back to the community to share the research findings, presenting each elder and fisher she’d interviewed with a book she’d created of their stories, quotes and photos of their traditional territory.
“I didn’t want to extract information from the community and then never have the opportunity to personally thank them for their knowledge and the stories they shared with me.”
Research from her thesis work also involved engagement with the Northwest Territories government, federal scientists and other academics, which helped identify best practices for sharing information among various parties.
She now relies on those skills in her current position, working with Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners, as well as different levels of government and social service agencies.
“Effective relationship-building promotes mutual trust and respect, and that’s important when dealing with the issue of homelessness, as communities share their challenges and vulnerable experiences with us.”
