Participants Women, Racialized Peoples, Indigenous Peoples, LGBTQ2S+ Peoples

Doing it right

Women and gender diverse people who work in the Yukon’s skilled trades and technology sectors will be mobilized through a research-to-action project that pilots innovative group, peer, and mentorship supports in various communities across the territory.

Making It Work, a 2019 report by Yukon Women in Trades and Technology (YWITT), identified that many Yukon women face a myriad of issues that negatively impact their entry into and retention in the skilled trades. The report put forward several recommendations for better supporting women, including providing mentorship and networking opportunities, as well as improving promotions and public education. Very few research studies about women in the skilled trades focus on or assess actual interventions that support them in the workforce.This project mobilizes what we currently know in order to develop and test initiatives for change at various scales.

A woman teaching a younger girl how to drill and build a wooden box.

Future Skills Centre is investing $254 900 for this 2.5-year project. Through community engagement, program development/implementation, and developmental evaluation, the program will identify shared interests across diverse tradespersons and stakeholders, pinpoint ideas and solutions to develop and trial, and broker connections for potential partnerships across communities and organizations.

A team of Community Action Leaders and our broader community members will be involved in the co-creation, piloting, and evaluation of interventions, and presentation of the project’s findings. Using focus group discussions, interviews, and ongoing community visits, we will support groups, organizations, and/or workplaces interested in creating and implementing a short-term initiative that supports peer/group support or mentorship. We will also develop, implement, and test some programming within YWITT itself.

At the end of this project, we will organize a gathering of all engaged stakeholders to share our findings and program experimentations, as well as celebrate our growing community of supporters, partners, and allies. Project findings will inform employers, governments, educational institutions and service delivery organizations and lead to ongoing intervention-oriented programming towards workplace and community-specific, as well as broad systems change.

Evaluation Strategy

This project is evaluated using tools and approaches aligned with its goals, context, and stage of development. The evaluation focuses on generating the right evidence at the right moment to move the intervention forward. Read more about our evaluation strategy.