On Thursday, May 17, committee members of the Lac La Biche Regional Attraction and Retention Society (LLB RARS) met at the Mayor's office to discuss their 'Rural Skills Day' event — which is being held this Tuesday (May 28) at Portage College.
The Committee is a recently formed local chapter of the Rural Health Professions Action Plan (RhPAP) — a provincial organization. The local society's committee members include representation from different organizations including Lac La Biche County Mayor Omer Moighrabi, County Councillors Jason Stedman and Charlyn Moore, other members at Large Dr. Richard Birkill, Zicki Eludin, Colin Anderson, Michele McDougall (Portage College representative), Kim Fleming (RhPAP), Gislind Morley, Lisa Dribnenki and Chairperson David Phillips.
The organization was created because of the growing need to retain local students, mainly those who leave their home communities to pursue higher education in the healthcare field. Through their programs like the Rural Skills Day event, RARS demonstrates to these students how they can benefit by coming back to serve their home communities, says Dribnenki, a career counselor at the J.A. Williams High School.