Following the land acknowledgement and reflection, First Work Board President Carolyn Warkentin gave remarks on the collective passion for an “innovative and inclusive economy” which this network holds. Keeping that notion salient, the Ceremony followed with a video of First Work members reflections on their inspiration as this sector weathers uncharted territory.

Futures sessions on Day 1 were held on supporting employers’ adoption of wider talent pools, featuring the Ontario Chamber of Commerce’s DiscoverAbility initiative on a Roadmap to Hiring People with A Disability and The Career Foundation’s Kerry Kettle on Championing an Inclusive Employer Engagement Strategy. 

Futures day two featured an overview session on the Common Assessment tool with the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development’s Assistant Deputy Minister, Employment and Training Division, Cordelia Abankwa. She said, "I believe that the key to inclusive recovery and transformed employment services is going to rely on collaboration, mutual support and also partnerships, and I'd like to thank you for your partnership." The morning of day two also saw sessions on Digital Transformation with Jake Hirsch Allen of LinkedIn and First Work’s Manager, Projects and Strategic Initiatives, Derrick An. Additional sessions included an in-depth look at mergers and amalgamations with Fist Work’s President Carolyn Warkentin and more.

Day Two also included sessions on innovative practices for programming, with First Work and Purpose Co’s Communities of Practice members. This session gave CoP participants the opportunity to share their solutions for enhancing Ontario’s EO programs including Second Career, Youth Job Connection (YJC), and the Canada Ontario Job Grant (COGJ). Bell Brown Molnar and Delicate Consulting Inc delivered an in-depth analysis of program evaluation during a session titled “Smoke and Mirrors,” and Wendy Quan, founder of the Calm Monkey provided us a look into using mindfulness for innovative change management. Finally, Kimberly Swartz of Taproot Foundation took Futures attendees on a deep-dive into the importance of social media for non-profits.

Keeping innovation at the forefront, sessions also included Designing for Change for digitizing career development with a focus on LinkedIn, from Herleen Arora and Seema Taneja. Herleen and Seema are supporting the development of First Work's newly launched, 3-part virtual learning series: Designing for Change.

Trauma-informed approaches are also more important than ever with this changing client profile and so our friends at Purpose Co hosted a session on Using the Resilience Scale in Employment Services.

Motivational Interviewing has been identified as one of the training needs for staff in anticipation of Ontario's Employment Services Transformation. Day 3 included Part 1 of Balancing the Teeter-Totter: An Introduction to Motivational Interviewing. Speaker Dale Kuehl lead participants in an interactive session which saw participants apply the concepts in practice and reflect on integrating these concepts into programming in small group discussions.

The fourth and final half day of Futures 2021 opened with a special keynote presentation from sponsor RBC's Gopal Bansal on the Power of Lived Experience. During his opening remarks, he addressed the impact his teachers had on his life saying, “as someone who grew up in tougher neighbourhoods, [recalling the few people – like teachers] who fundamentally changed my view of the world.” Because his network was small without professional connections, he says, “those opportunities were significant.”

RBC’s ongoing commitment to anti-racism is clear in their ongoing contribution to train the workforce development sector on best approaches to champion anti-oppression. Following Futures’20 training on Developing an Anti-Racist, Anti-Oppression Approach in Our Sector, RBC sponsored a cultural sensitivity training by Victoria Herrera on supporting Indigenous youth in education and employment. Victoria spoke on the history and lasting effects of residential schools on the Indigenous community, and ways to implement the “Four R’s Framework” into employment and training programming for Indigenous youth. "This is a framework that was created for education, but it can be applied anywhere,” Victoria Herrera said on the four R’s, which “are: Respect, Relevance, Reciprocity & Responsibility.”. Thanks to RBC’s continued support, we are grateful to provide a space for our network to learn how to be better allies in anti-oppression.

The final day of Futures continued with multi-national perspectives on the changing labour market with presentations from the OECD on Preparing Youth for a Changing Labour Market and Lessons Learned from BC's Employment Services Transformation.