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Tuesday Group

Tuesday Group is a Boundary Waters Connect sponsored community gathering that takes place weekly over the noon hour on Tuesdays at the Grand Ely Lodge.

 

We provide a space for people to come together and learn something new, and strive to feature speakers and topics relevant to northeast Minnesota. Tuesday group attendees are encouraged to order lunch, but ordering lunch is not required. 

 

Many Tuesday Group presentations are offered in a hybrid model: both in-person and live online via Zoom. Go to the Events page for information on upcoming Tuesday Group sessions. 

Recorded Tuesday Group presentations can be found below and on the Boundary Waters Connect YouTube channel

Tuesday Group -- Community-Based Recovery Program with Well Being Development
49:27
Boundary Waters Connect

Tuesday Group -- Community-Based Recovery Program with Well Being Development

The Tuesday Group presentation on November 7, 2023 was provided by Kap Wilkes and Emmy Ferguson, who gave us an introduction to a community-based recovery program. A Community-Based Recovery Program is being developed by a team within Well Being Development (WBD), starting with funds from the St Louis County Opioid Settlement Funds, awarded to WBD in early 2023. Well Being Development is a non-profit community agency serving the Ely area providing person-centered behavioral health education and resources. WBD helps people impacted by mental health and substance-use challenges live their best lives through values of respect, compassion, collaboration, community, and impact. Over the past year a project team and advisory group of committed community members have been exploring community perceptions and researching the impact of substance use and opioid use disorders (SUD and OUD), and options for treatments and recovery support that could be used here in the Ely area. We are presenting our findings and early ideas for a recovery residence with co-located support services and talking with our community to gather additional input that can be used for further design and implementation ideas. Kap Wilkes has been bringing people together for positive change for over twenty years. She has worked in over 40 states and with more than 200 rural leaders providing expertise in thinking strategically, engaging stakeholders, developing sustained networks, retaining staff, and managing change. Kap is the Executive Director with Well Being Development and a rural health consultant. She is an adjunct faculty for The College of St. Scholastica teaching within the Rural Healthcare MBA program, taeching both Organization Development and Performance Improvement courses.
Tuesday Group -- Human Trafficking & Exploitation in Minnesota
01:00:51
Boundary Waters Connect

Tuesday Group -- Human Trafficking & Exploitation in Minnesota

Tuesday Group on October 31, 2023 was a presentation on Human Trafficking and Exploitation in Minnesota provided by Tatiana Bergum and Mel Alvar. They talked about the myths we often hear portrayed in the media, federal and state response to human trafficking and exploitation, terminology, data surrounding youth in MN, protective factors + resiliency, best practices, and prevention. Data shows that youth in rural communities across Minnesota are experiencing exploitation at higher rates than those in rural areas. It’s important for rural communities to better understand this issue and how to support survivors in their community. Tatiana Bergum and her family live in Duluth, Minnesota. She’s a wife, mother, and social justice advocate. She has worked in the anti-trafficking and mental health field in the past 5 years with survivors, and has a powerful story of her own that fuels her heart for the issue of youth experiencing sexual violence. Prior to anti trafficking work, Tatiana worked in Washington, D.C. doing communications and federal policy work. Most recently Tatiana worked as a federal contractor with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP). She provided national training and technical assistance as part of OTIP’s National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center where she had the opportunity to train systems, communities, and organizations across the country on the issues of trafficking. She has extensive experience in community planning and collaboration, non-profit strategy, and state legislative and policy work around the issue of commercial sexual exploitation of youth and children. Mel Alvar (she/her) is a community advocate, public health educator, and human trafficking subject matter expert from Duluth, Minnesota and a 2023 National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center (NHTTAC) - Human Leadership Academy (HTLA) Cohort 8 Fellow. Mel’s current work as the Safe Harbor Regional Navigator for Northeast Minnesota at PAVSA (Program for Aid to Victims of Sexual Assault) connects her to communities and professionals across the region to build capacity for walking alongside individuals and families impacted by exploitation and human trafficking. For nearly 20 years, Mel has been involved in harm reduction, gender-based violence prevention, and outreach efforts in the Twin Ports area (Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin). Mel is fiercely passionate about improving equity, assisting families in navigating complicated systems and lowering the barriers that folks impacted by violence encounter on their healing journey. Mel is a mother, jewelry artist, business owner (Traveling Beads by Melissa), podcaster (Parent Chat), and CrossFit athlete in recovery, with lived experience of intimate partner trauma and exploitation.
Tuesday Group -- Factors Influencing Mercury Cycling and Bioaccumulation in Fish with Randy Kolka
56:48
Boundary Waters Connect

Tuesday Group -- Factors Influencing Mercury Cycling and Bioaccumulation in Fish with Randy Kolka

The Tuesday Group program on September 5, 2023 was provided by Randall Kolka, who discussed factors Influencing Mercury Cycling and Bioaccumulation in Fish. Cutting-edge research on the Marcell Experimental Forest and other locations in northern Minnesota over the past couple of decades have led to discoveries related to mercury biogeochemistry, atmospheric deposition, hot spots where the bioaccumulative methylmercury is produced and controls on that production, the impact of fire on the transport and bioaccumulation in fish, and how warming associated with climate change influences mercury cycles. As a result of our long-term mercury research program, EPA and the state Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has used our research in major cases such as the Polymet mine decision, and currently with proposing a total maximum daily load (TMDL) policy for the St. Louis River. Randy holds degrees in Soil Science, from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and MS and PhD degrees from the University of Minnesota with minors in Forest Resources and Water Resources. Following his last position as Assistant Professor of Watershed Management at the University of Kentucky, he became a Research Soil Scientist with the USDA Forest Service’s Northern Research Station in Grand Rapids, MN in 2002. He studies the cycling of water, elements, and pollutants in urban, agricultural, forested, and wetland ecosystems across the globe. He is an adjunct faculty member at 6 universities and has published over 275 scientific articles in his career.
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