PEER Employment Program Supervisor
Joanne takes participants who are homeless/at risk of homelessness to the shelter farm and teaches them basic farming skills. At the farm they develop social skills, confidence, and time management, all while earning minimum wage for their time and effort! Joanne and her colleagues are simultaneously working to set participants up with opportunities for employment, education, recovery programs, or a combination of whatever they need.
Down in Australia, Joanne earned:
- BA in Communications- Public Relations & amp; Journalism from Edith Cowan University.
- BA Health Sciences- Naturopathy Southern School of Natural Therapies
She most recently took a market gardener training program at North Island College here in Port Alberni!
Her greatest passion is her three beautiful children whom she is slowly learning the French language alongside, and they have a lot of fun together! Joanne loves to garden, and when she isn’t in the garden or at the farm, she can usually be found walking her dog through the rainforests on a hunt for mushrooms. She also loves to cook and enjoys kayaking on any of the many lakes here. In addition to advancing her French skills, Joanne is also developing her photography techniques.
Never stop picking yourself up and dusting yourself off, because the hard stuff in life reveals just how truly strong and capable we are.”