Ernest Muswagon, Safety Presenter / Aboriginal Liaison

Be versatile

(TEXT FROM SOUNDBITE)

"Any time we go into a school full of high school students, if you go in there rigid and not very approachable, they're just going to ignore you.

"I do a comedy routine in regards to safety. I talk about a lot of things I've done over the past decade and a half, I share personal stories about the injuries that I've sustained, doing the things that are common, everyday stuff.

Moving on

Since this profile was produced in early 2008, Ernest accepted a new job as a staff representative at the Manitoba Government and General Employees Union (MGEU) office in The Pas.

Ernest started his new job (and the next stage of his career) in July 2008.

Workplace images

Funding

Safe Workers of Tomorrow is a non-profit organization. We receive funding from Worker's Compensation through a program called Community Initiatives Research, as well as grants from the Province of Manitoba.

We also get some corporate funding and private donations because we are a registered charity.

What we do

Primarily what we do is give presentations about occupational workplace safety awareness.

We talk about workplace hazards, how to recognize those hazards, what to do if you come across those hazards and we talk about workers' rights. We also talk a little bit about employment standards in regards to workplace safety.

We give these presentations in public schools, First Nations communities, Adult Learning Centres, and EAL classes* for newcomers. It's important that everyone has this education available because everyone's safety is important.

*NOTE: English as an Additional Language classes help immigrants develop the language skills they need to be successful in Manitoba.

Growth and travel

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"As of mid-September, we presented to our hundred thousandth student so we've hit a milestone there. We've been around for ten years.

"It originated in my Executive Director's garage back in 1997 and now we've got a small office on the corner of Keewatin and Notre Dame. There's so much stuff to do and we're getting more and more presentation requests.

"We're traveling through the province, it's not just Winnipeg; I've been to Churchill, The Pas, Falcon Beach. I've been pretty much every corner of the province doing this job and trying to get the safety culture changed."

Get into aboriginal communities

My job is Aboriginal Liaison, which means I'm supposed to go into aboriginal communities and aboriginal organizations and try to partner up with them so that we can transfer some of this knowledge and experience, not only to the leaders of the community, but the young people as well.

It's tough because it's hard to get into an aboriginal community. They're so busy and a lot of people just think "It's not going to happen to me."

Young at heart

It's a fun atmosphere at work because we're all either young or young at heart. I'm the oldest of the four presenters; my co-workers are all in their twenties. We're all very passionate about safety because we've seen a lot and we've been through a lot.

Difficult childhood

I was born in Norway House but I was transient when I was younger; we moved everywhere. We were in the City of Winnipeg; we lived in Brandon for a while; B.C., Saskatchewan, then we moved back here to Winnipeg.

At the time it seemed normal. I think back now and it was probably the worst thing for me. The oldest friend I have is from high school and that's only been fifteen years. I don't have any childhood friends because we moved so much.

It wasn't good for us as a family to be moving around so much. Another issue that we dealt with was that we were on welfare while I grew up. My mom did a lot of house cleaning on the side, just to try to make ends meet and my stepdad didn't work.

Back to Norway House

I dropped out of grade eleven and moved back to Norway House. Then things turned around and I didn't look back; I was more comfortable there than I had ever been in Winnipeg.

My grades improved and my self-respect increased. I began to regain a lot of confidence in myself. I was never the type of student that had to study much, but I did need to try; I did that when I moved back to Norway House too.

I did well in high school, then because I'm First Nations and I'm treaty, I had to apply for sponsorship so that my First Nations would pay towards some of my university education.

Graduating from university

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"I grew up thinking I wanted to go through university because I was told I'd never be able to. Another reason was I didn't want to live on welfare forever.

"When I was in university I played the student politics role and developed my comfort with speaking to people. And of course the networking skills you learn at university as well, it's helped a lot in regards to just being confident in getting the message across."

My own family now

I've got a six month old baby at home. He was born on my mother's birthday, which was kind of neat. September 8th is a special day for my family and me.

I've also got a seven year old stepson with my partner, Diana. She's a pharmacy technician with Seven Oaks Hospital. She's on maternity leave right now but will be returning to work when her leave's over.

Sports and video games

I like playing sports when I'm not working. I used to play football with a bunch of guys at the Burton Cummings Community Centre field. We started back in university and last summer was the only summer we didn't play. I branched out into playing a lot of ball hockey on weekends and I go skating with my son.

I like spending time at the library. I enjoy reading whether it's work related or not.

I play video games, probably way too much. That's a de-stressor for me.

Going home

I like going back home to Norway House because it's where I feel most comfortable. I enjoy it there. There's lots of fishing, lots of outdoor things to do.

I don't even mind the bugs! It's a good place to be in the summer.

Office work and field work

In the summer we are less busy with presentations. When I come into the office, it's a much more relaxed environment. I check email, make phone calls to plan and organize upcoming events and presentations.

During the slow periods of the summer I also get a chance to do more research and go over new statistics, plan out new material that we might be presenting in the future.

During our busiest months from October to March we get a little stressed. We could be doing one presentation in one school in the morning and then drive across the city or the province to do another one in a different school in the afternoon or the next day. Sometimes we're in one school all day doing up to five presentations for different groups or classes. Those days can be pretty mentally draining.

Presentations

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"We introduce ourselves, then start off with the five types of hazards, talk about those things and then we break them down a little bit.

"We watch a video just to break up the hour, sometimes we get as low as forty minutes to do a presentation. We're very flexible that way. A really good presentation's about an hour and a half with a video.

"We ask some questions; I try to be humorous in the presentation as well, get them to laugh because if they're laughing and enjoying the presentation, the chances are they're going to remember a lot more of it. We try to get the students to think about the jobs that they're in. We give a general presentation as to the hazards, but applying the risks of those hazards to their particular jobs, we try to leave that in the hands and the minds of the students that we present to."

Different hours

My job really isn't a normal 9 to 5 job. My day really changes from one to the next; it all depends on where we are in the province and how many presentations we have to do. Some days are just five hours of presentation time and travel back to your hotel.

Other times we're leaving at seven o'clock in the morning and we're getting back to the hotel at eight or nine o'clock at night because we're traveling so much. When we're going into smaller communities where there are no hotels we have to stay at the closest community with lodging; it could be a sixteen hour day or it could be a five hour day depending on where we are and the time of year.

Very flexible

With the nature of this job and the people I work with it's a pretty flexible schedule. For example, if I were supposed to be in the office on a Friday and another person who was doing presentations had something come up, we would work things out among ourselves; I'd take that presentation and they could take one of mine in the future.

It's nice to have that flexibility in case something comes up, like if you are ill or if you need to take time off for a family emergency.

Home / work balance

(TEXT FROM SOUND BIT)

"It's more of a problem now than before, when I was single I didn't have any kids. It was no big deal, if I needed to travel I traveled; if I needed to work late I'd work late. It was no issue.

"Now that I've got a family and balancing, it's a little bit different. I don't travel as much as I used to, which is nice. But at the same time I'd like to get out to as many communities as possible, it's not the same any more. Not when you've got a little one, it's a little bit harder."

Stress

There is stress involved with this job, but it's really not that bad. If you're able to go in and do a presentation and then forget about work when you go home it's not a problem. It's the psycho-social hazards we talk about in our presentations, that's where the stress comes from.

Now that I've got a family it's easy to forget about work and get caught up in life; I can remove work from my mind 100% and relax without worrying about upcoming tasks.

Lots of skills needed

Communication is a huge part of what I do, but you have to use math skills and science skills too because you're reading a lot of statistics and you have to be able to bring those statistics into some sort of reality for students.

You have to be able to understand science in many cases to explain some of the hazards that people might face in a workplace. You sometimes have to explain somewhat complicated things to a group of students as young as grade seven.

My creative skills are also a large part of my success as a presenter. When I'm putting together a presentation, or even when I'm explaining things to the students, I have to be creative. Within the first thirty seconds of a presentation, after I've been introduced to the class I have to devise how I can make the presentation work best for that particular group of students.

Networking

I couldn't do the job without good networking skills. Networking is something that I do even when I'm not at work. Anybody that I meet on the street or at an event is a networking opportunity. They might know someone that needs the information that I have or they might know someone that organizes guest speakers.

Traveling for work

There is a lot of travelling involved with the work that I do. If it's within and around the city we use our own vehicles, but if it's outside the city, we rent a vehicle to use.

We've got travelling procedures so that there are almost always two of us on the road if we're going out of town. Travelling with a partner is always more safe and it gives us the opportunity to switch drivers if it's a long drive. And it's always nice to have the company!

Sometimes we fly when that's the only way into a community. But I'm a driver at heart. I love driving and I like to take my time on the highway and enjoy the scenery. Flying can also create challenges because once you get to the destination you're either walking or someone has to pick you up.

Life experience

It's hard to get up in front of people and talk. Some people just can't do it. It gets easier with time.

One of the things that has helped me become more confident is just life experience. The more you know your subject and the more people you've talked to, the less pressure you feel when you do a presentation.

If someone said when I was in high school that I was going to be doing this I would have said "no way". I almost fainted in Grade 10 when I tried to do a presentation to my classmates. Now look at me! I have no problem standing in front of large groups of people because I feel comfortable with it and I want to get my message across.

Personality needed

I would say the personality that I have is a great one for a job like this. Outgoing, funny; I can make people laugh and feel comfortable in sharing their stories with me. And I share a lot of my stories too, so being open about those things as well has helped.

Change of career

After high school I took a year and half of medical school. I had planned on becoming a doctor, but after I was in the program at the university I realized that wasn't really the job for me. I lost interest in it and decided to drop out.

I ended up working for a year before I went back to school. I didn't really know what I wanted to do, but I knew that university was where I should be.

I graduated as an Arts student with a 3-year degree in Conflict Resolution Studies in 1999 and went on to work as a school counsellor for another three years. I received my 4-year degree after I came back to the city and I wanted to continue on with my Masters but got into this job first, so here I am.

Constant learning

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"We have videos and we have a lot of text documents in the office that we can read; a lot of times it's the internet. A lot of times it's "Hey, this is cool. Read it." And we'll forward information back and forth to each other.

"Our employer promotes us to further our education and our knowledge base in anything that we're interested in."

"We have to keep up on the trends of workplace safety; we take a lot of courses, whenever they're available we make time for them."

Loved reading, not English

I love reading and I love telling stories. In school I liked writing stories. But my punctuation, my grammar, my sentence structure; everything about how I wrote was wrong.

I tried to pursue writing a little bit more when I was in university but it was a really big challenge for me. Now that I'm working I get to tell stories without worrying about all the little details.

True happiness

I basically want to have a happy life with my family. I hope that my health stays good and I can be playing with my kids ten years from now.

At work I'd like to feel a little more fulfillment. I'd like to be able to pick up a newspaper and not see a story about someone being killed or getting injured on the job. If I decide to move on to another career field, I hope that someone just as passionate and vigilant will replace me.

Change attitudes

I'd really like to change people's attitudes to safety and the importance of our organization.

There are people who think, "Oh you're not worried about safety, you're just part of the government. You're trying to tell us what to do and take more money than we need."

A lot of young people think "Well this is boring; I'm not going to get hurt; I don't do those jobs anyway."

The attitudes and the preconceived notions that we're trying to force things upon people is wrong, I'd really like to help make a difference. It's going to be tough, but it can be done.

Working with other organizations

Working with other organizations can be tough. One of the biggest tasks we need to do is go and talk at Health and Safety conferences as an organization, to try to spark a little more action out of other groups.

We'd like to just go in and say "This is great, that this conference is happening; this is great that you guys are interested in safety; but as a organized Health and Safety group, you guys need to be doing' more."

We need to be respectful and yet tell them that not enough is being done, because people are still getting injured on the job every day.

Politics

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"In five years I hope to be sitting in the Manitoba Legislative Assembly. I ran in the last provincial election, in a riding that had no hope to win.

"The experience that I gained and the contacts that I made are going to help me along. I've always been pretty political. Politics has been my stepping stone and a lot of the students that I went to school with are now either working in or are in the process of working in government and political avenues.

"I ran and I hope to run again; hopefully next time I'll win."

Move back North

I've always wanted to go back up north. It's my home, it's where I feel most comfortable. Going back home to Norway House or another community up there is something that I would like to do.

Whether or not that will happen all depends on my family. My partner grew up in the city and has a job that she really likes here. I'm not one to make her pick up and move. Who knows what'll happen? Only time will tell.

Job Market Info

The links below take you to federal and regional government information on employment, education, salary ranges and long range prospects for this career.

The official title for Ernest Muswagon's occupation is "Community and Social Service Worker" and his NOC* code is 4212.

Manitoba Job Futures

Employment Prospects - Labour Market Information

*Each occupation has an official name and unique number called the 'National Occupation Classification' code or 'NOC'.

Education

Useful High School subjects

- Language Arts
- A second language
- Family studies
- Computer-related courses

To be a Community and Social Service Worker, you usually need a university or college program in social work, child and youth care, counselling, or other social science/health related field.

For some occupations in this group, previous experience in a social service environment as a volunteer or in a support capacity may replace formal education requirements.

For those out of school, Adult Learning Centres can help you get or upgrade your high school diploma, including adding subjects that are required for work or further education. All Manitobans are normally entitled to four free courses.

Skills

The most important skills for a Community and Social Service Worker as well as other related occupations are:

- Communication skills
- Client / customer needs assessment
- Reporting
- Community service work

Source: JobFutures Manitoba

Professional Resources

The Manitoba Association of Social Workers

Social Workers Online

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