At Taylor Newberry Consulting we are grateful to be able to connect to incredibly talented, passionate and dedicated individuals. We are especially fortunate that some of these individuals have chosen to call themselves “TNCers”. We are continually inspired by members of our staff who share laughs, values, and learnings. Periodically, our website will feature a different member of our staff who will share a little bit about their work and a glimpse into their life.
This week, Karla sat down with Laine to learn more about her work at TNC and the things that bring her joy. Laine joined the team in 2017 and recently returned from maternity leave. Her absence was definitely felt at TNC and we are grateful to once again have her warmth, passion, and insights surround us.
Karla: What’s your favorite thing about working at TNC?
Laine Bourassa: There’s so many things so it’s hard to pick. I think at the moment one thing I’m really enjoying is our team-based approach and how that helps so many aspects of our work. It makes us stronger. We produce better products that have more diverse perspectives and that take into account the strengths of different team members. Which is all great. It makes the projects more fun. It’s also great to have people that you can bounce your ideas off of. It’s a joy to be part of our team.
Karla Stroud: Beautiful. I feel like I always learn so much from every single person in every single meeting we have. There’s always some learning that I’m taking away. Could you tell me a little bit about a project that you’re currently working on and something that you’re learning from it?
Laine Bourassa: So one of the projects I started off on right after coming back from mat leave was the Lead Up project. It’s a leadership project in partnership with BGC Canada where we are redesigning a program guidebook that we created, that I actually wrote seven odd years ago. So it’s really great to circle back to that. I’ve been involved with this project for years now so I have a lot of historical knowledge and involvement in this work. It surprises me that there are still so many learnings about youth leadership in the context of this project.
I think one of the things that is standing out to me is that younger youth are getting involved in leadership and volunteering. When this project first started Clubs worked with youth in the 16 to 19 age group. But now a lot of young people aged 12-15 are interested in getting involved in the Clubs. In fact, I think 50% of the youth in the program at the moment are in that age bracket. It’s exciting to see so many people starting so young learning that skill set, getting involved, giving back to the community and how impactful their work can be. I know people often think that you have to be nearly an adult to really contribute something meaningful. So that’s been cool.
But also learning just how to engage that group of young people because there are some different considerations in working with them. Two findings really stood out to me from this project. These were findings we heard from Club staff which aligned with results from prior work for Canada Service Corps completed by Andrew Taylor and a few other TNC team members that explored how to adapt service learning for younger youth. We learned that younger youth are governed by their parents. They don’t often get the kind of say older youth get and the autonomy that older youth get. A lot of organizations are nervous about working with young people because they feel like they don’t have the practices or policies to really support them. So, yeah, that’s a learning that I’ve been excited about.
Karla Stroud: Great. And what’s one of your favorite memories since you’ve been back at TNC?
Laine Bourassa: That one is easy. I would have to say TNC’s 14-year anniversary party at 10C that was hosted a couple weeks ago. We celebrated with a lot of our colleagues and other partners that we work with. Just being together in a space with everyone and connecting was so magical. I wish we could do that all the time.
Karla Stroud: Yeah, yeah, it was so much fun. I loved it. What’s something outside of work that has made you smile this week?
Laine Bourassa: My daughter is just over a year old and practicing walking now. We just got her gum boots and it had rained recently, so we took her to the spot where we knew there would be puddles. For an hour straight she walked through the puddles, jumped, and danced in the puddles, then would walk through them again and repeat. It was so magical to see what a little water on the ground could do for a young person.
Karla Stroud: Yeah, my gosh, that’s beautiful. Okay, and then finish this sentence: When I’m not working at TNC, I’m most likely…
Laine Bourassa: to be hanging out with my daughter, my dog, and my husband. Probably outside in our backyard.
Thanks Laine!