As a retired teacher, Jasper’s Paulette Dubé has logged thousands of hours in the classroom. Like many educators, she considers herself a life long learner.
But before July of 2024, Dubé would not have guessed her higher learning would include how to help a community navigate rebuilding after a wildfire.
Yet now, thanks to Jasper’s Pathfinders program, Dubé is well-versed in recovery lexicon.
“I speak fire. I speak bank. I speak insurance,” she shrugged. “These are the languages that have been forced on us.”
In the wake of the 2024 wildfire, the Pathfinders program empowers Jasper residents with leadership and mental health training to support community recovery. Dubé is one of 84 Jasperites who have taken the program in an effort to help guide her fellow community members as they make their way through unknown terrain.
“The learning curve has been really steep for everybody,” Dubé says.
The modules cover community supports and navigating the rebuild—insurance pitfalls and scope of work details and debris removal, for example—but also mental health first-aid and suicide prevention. Building capacity in those areas is critical, as Dubé has seen with her own eyes.
“People are very vulnerable,” Dubé said. “And if your mental health is shaky, if you’re ignoring it, everything else can fall apart.”
Pathfinders aren’t counsellors or therapists, but they have tools to help their neighbours, colleagues and fellow residents manage stress and uncertainty. And they can guide people to the right resources.
To help Jasperites recognize a Pathfinder as someone they can reach out to, the program arms Pathfinders with visual identifiers, denoting their availability.
“When you see a person in the community who has that fireweed logo on a backpack or a hat, you know that’s someone who’s done the Pathfinder training,” said the JRCC’s Manager of Housing and Social Recovery, Doug Olthof.
One Jasperite who proudly sports the Pathfinders logo is Logan Ireland. As someone actively employed on the rebuild through his work with the Jasper Recovery Coordination Centre, Ireland wasn’t sure how much new information he’d be receiving by going through the course. To his surprise—particularly as it relates to providing mental health support—his perspective on listening has completely shifted.
“Prior to this course I was more inclined to want to help solve someone’s problem,” Ireland said. “I’ve since learned that sometimes the best thing I can do is validate what that person is feeling is real.”
That sentiment resonates for Dubé. For while it’s one thing being fluent in “bank,” “insurance” and “fire,” it’s more important to be versed in empathy.
“Of all of the things that have to be organized in this town, we can’t forget about the people,” she said.
Thanks to support from Pursuit, the Pathfinders course is ongoing this spring. Honorariums are available for individuals taking the course away from work time, or if their employer is not paying them to attend.
To nominate yourself or another individual, visit the Pathfinders website.
Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com
