Candace Simon, BBA
Manager, Strategy Operations
Executive summary
A leader and Memorial University business graduate with a career of over 20 years on the ground at the grass roots level, Candace's experience in community and economic development, social enterprise, building organizational capacity, business, and volunteering on various Indigenous boards gives her a macro view of the issues communities are currently addressing. Over the past two decades, Candace has worked in the realms of income support, employment counseling, program development, proposal writing, marketing, and public relations, all of which has given her the ability to gain a professional level of diversity into the many faucets of client relations.
Most recently, Candace played a key role in the development of the newly formed organization, Empowering Indigenous Women for Stronger Communities (EIWFSC)—a provincial collaboration with the Mi'kmaw, Innu, and Inuit women of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The mandate of EIWFSC is to end gender-based violence and impact positive mental health through culturally based programming that will help to create sustainable economic and financial stability in Indigenous communities. Candace led the organization through the development of a social enterprise that is positioned in such a way that supports the mission of the organization and helps EIWFSC lessen its reliance on government funding.
As the current Chair of the Mi'kmaw Cultural Foundation, Candace believes that building the capacity of and supporting grassroots Indigenous communities is important to the promotion and preservation of culture, and that connecting the traditional knowledge of the Elders with the youth is one of the most critical components to cultural reclamation.
Additionally, Candace is a member of the Eastern Door Feather Carriers: Leadership for Life Promotion group, whose mission involves drawing on Indigenous concepts of leadership while employing a two-eye seeing approach to better protect and promote the health and well-being of Indigenous communities.
Candace is a certified Living Works ASIST (Suicide Intervention) and SafeTALK trainer, as well as a seasoned facilitator and skilled proposal writer andhas led various funding projects. Candace strongly believes in and acknowledges cultural protocols. She is a traditional hand drummer and song carrier—acknowledging her teachers, Gertie Mai Muise and Elders, Maggie Paul, and Odelle Pike, among many others—and considers herself to be a respectful student to knowledge keepers and traditional Elders in her community.
Candace is skilled and effective at applying interview techniques and assessment tools through a client-centered approach and has a great foundation of experience leading groups through supervisory roles—including her roles of Executive Director and Director of Economic Development—and is well-versed as a facilitator in several capacities.
Professional affiliations
BBA, Memorial University of Newfoundland
ASIST trainer, Living Works
Assessment Component of Employment Counselling
Professional designations and education
Bachelor of Commerce, The University of British Columbia (1997)