NETP employment counsellor Corinne Moore’s cultural and spiritual connection to the Nuu-chah-nulth community runs deep.
The daughter of Denny and Sarah Durocher, Moore attended Haahuupayak School where she learned the Nuu-chah-nulth language and culture alongside her First Nations classmates.
“It was a fantastic experience,” Moore said. “The spirituality and the teachings really had a strong influence on me growing up.”
Upon graduation from Alberni District Secondary School, Moore spent one year in theatre at the University of Victoria, but realized that her first passion was dance. She transferred to Simon Fraser University, where she completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with the goal of teaching dance.
But along with her major in dance, she also took electives in the liberal arts, including a healthy serving of psychology. The exposure to the social sciences was to pay dividends when Moore and her Victoria-born husband decided to move back to the Island.
“I was actually tempted to do a minor in psychology. That learning and that experience really helped me in what I’m doing today,” she said. “Back in high school, they always pointed me towards social work. After all these years, it’s coming true.”
Moore did establish a career teaching dance on the Lower Mainland, but there was constant stress in finding short-term contracts and maintaining a “daytime” job to pay the bills. Add to this the birth of her first child, and her career had become “more of an ordeal than a joy.”
At the time she left, Moore was working as a customer advocate for an Internet hosting company.
“I was supposed to have my Blackberry on hand, 24/7. We had a clientele from all over the world, and they were given my direct cell phone number and told to call me any time if they were having a billing issue or a technical issue.”
Moore said she really wanted to come home, and her husband was agreeable.
“He was on board with the idea of having a house with a yard, and a barbecue,” she said.
The couple moved to Port Alberni in July 2013, and Moore was hired by NETP almost immediately. Starting out on reception, she soon became involved in setting up a new driver training program.
“My colleagues were doing it off the side of their desks, rather than having a full-time person to be that liaison and to do all that paperwork.”
By September, Moore had assumed much of the work in organizing the program, and in October, became the classroom facilitator.
“It re-awakened my love of teaching. I had decided when I was in Vancouver that teaching dance wasn’t fun anymore.
“But facilitating learning workshops has been a joy, and it has reminded me that I have a gift for teaching.”
The NETP driver training program offers support for adult Nuu-chah-nulth members to obtain their B.C. driver’s license, which opens up new employment opportunities.
Many of the clients are dealing with multiple barriers, including limited formal education and technological skills.
“In the classroom, we’re teaching to the test: strategies and information to pass the ‘knowledge’ test,” Moore explained, adding that the examination process is more rigourous than in the past.
“Now the test is more difficult and more technologically challenging, because it is done on a touch-screen computer.”
The information required to pass the knowledge test is contained in a book. For many of the NETP candidates, however, taking that test requires a great deal of mental preparation to face what can be a daunting challenge.
“It’s a challenging test for anyone. I share in the workshop that I tried to pass it four times,” Moore said. “I try to share that it is a common experience. We try to talk about strategies like breathing, controlling your negative thoughts – changing your thought patterns about testing altogether.”
To date, NETP has delivered the program in Port Alberni, Ucluelet, Tofino, Gold River and Zeballos, and there are plans to take it to Kyuquot in the near future.
“It has been very successful. To date, we have 71 learners that we have supported since I started in July, and 30 have obtained their novice licenses.”
Moore said for many clients the program proves to be a “springing-off point.”
“Their confidence is boosted; their motivation is enhanced; they are ready to take on that new challenge. Some of them say, ‘Maybe I want to go to school.’”
In her new role, Moore assists clients within Nuu-chah-nulth communities with setting employment goals, writing resumes and assisting with applications for funding for training.
“I’m also writing success stories based on some of our most successful candidates who complete their certificate and secure employment. Sharing that with the rest of the community is really valuable. People can say, ‘There’s Bob. He did it. Maybe I can do that.’”
