Northwestern Branch

Northwestern Branch includes Thunder Bay, Kenora, Sioux Lookout and Northwestern Ontario.

Board/Executive Members

We continue to use a working group model and meet on a monthly basis. Members of the working group are as follows:

Julie Woit (private practice)
Teresa Legowski (St. Joseph's Care Group)
Lauren McKinnon (Children's Centre Thunder Bay)
Cathy Farrell (Thunder Bay District Health Unit; North of Superior Adoption Services)
Ember Trochimchuk (St. Joseph's Care Group)
Gail Linklater, (AIDS Thunder Bay)
Joanne Dagsvik (St. Joseph's Care Group)
Myliece Tirschmann (student representative)

Upcoming Branch Initiatives

Two of our members are working together to present to classes of social work students to speak about the benefits of affiliation with the profession through membership in OASW as well as the passion that social workers bring to their profession. To date, they have received strong positive feedback. Recent Branch Initiatives

AGM held November 13th

We followed up on interest from Lakehead University students and sponsored a contest offering cash prizes for the top three posters/creative renditions that addressed the theme of Social Workers: Making a Difference in the Lives of People. A comedian addressed the theme in a humorous way and a videoconference reached out to our regional members.

For a more detailed report, please click [AGM].

Social Work Week

• Once again, we took out a full-page ad in the Chronicle Journal on March 8, 2008 to celebrate Social Work week. We had a very positive response from the community. Several businesses and agencies sponsored the ad.
• We mailed Chapters gift certificates this year to honour our members for Social Work Week. We also plan on supporting our Western members with a contribution towards their Social Work Week celebrations.
• Our student representative helped organize a huge and quite successful event in the Agora at Lakehead University. There were many displays that were made by the Social Work students on the topic of violence.

Contact Information

Branch Contact: Teresa Legowski, Thunder Bay