Breaking Down Barriers workshop series hosted by Sudbury Women’s Centre

The Sudbury Women’s Centre is launching a new workshop series designed to help women navigate and overcome obstacles in male-populated industries while helping organizations build more inclusive workplaces.

The Breaking Down Barriers workshop series will bring together a group of up to 15 women interested in learning from trailblazers across sectors including technology, construction, emergency services and business.

The program, funded by a Women and Gender Equality grant, will provide training across northern Ontario in Sudbury, Manitoulin, North Bay, Timmins, Thunder Bay and Sault Ste Marie.

Samantha Thompson, the lead on the workshop series, explained to CTV News the vision behind the initiative.

“This project is to help support women in male populated industries, help kind of break those barriers and support them in navigating those barriers, while also helping the organizations build more inclusive workplaces,” she said.

Thompson emphasized that accessibility is a core component of the program.

“The training we provide to different businesses that’s all free and anybody can sign up by emailing me, and we can book a meeting,” Thompson said.

“With the workshops, it’s the same thing. So, send me an email, and I can add you to the list. We do have limited spots available, but at the same time we’re willing to kind of see where this takes us.”

Lorelei Ratushniak will be the featured guest for the for the first workshop, bringing her extensive experience as founder of a management consulting firm and director of mining relations for Mining Innovation Commercialization Accelerator and as Ms. Regional Canada.

“This really strongly aligns with what I advocate for,” she said.

“I help women who don’t have access to traditional resources and business and education credentials really look at how they can overcome barriers. So, to have this accessible in Sudbury and I just was hearing from Samantha, this is also a program across northern Ontario – I think it’s going to be hugely beneficial.”

While acknowledging the progress women’s groups have made in securing funding for various programs, Ratushniak told CTV News that some of the most significant challenges women face can be internal.

“When we feel like we don’t have enough resources or we don’t have the right credentials, or we’re not seeing in our external world what we need to be successful, we can talk ourself out of things,” she said.

“I think there’s a lot of real barriers I want to explore internally and have women understand what does it really mean to change? What are some of those core beliefs that don’t serve us, that we unconsciously are carrying with us, that are getting in the way of either applying for a job or maybe speaking up.”

The Breaking Down Barriers workshop series begins Feb. 18 at the Sudbury Women’s Centre and will run Wednesdays from 6 to 8 p.m. until March 25. Interested participants can contact Thompson directly by email to reserve one of the limited spots in the program.

More information can be found on the Sudbury Women’s Centre Facebook events page.