Shawne Elaine Danahy is from the Nakzadli people in Fort St. James. Her husband is from the Crow Clan of the Kaska people. She is a mother to four sons, and a grandmother to five grand children. Shawne became a Christian at age 17, but has had struggles and problems with addictions.
Shawne has lived in Mobberly, Abbotsford, Oliver, Fort St. John and now Lower Post. When Shawne went into counselling, she learned about Codependency and Adult Children of Alcoholics behaviors. When she read the book, “Women Who Love Too Much” she felt like she was reading her own diary. Her hardest struggle was telling the truth about her mother’s alcohol abuse. Telling her truth and breaking the family silence was such a great hurdle to overcome.
Shawne still lives with abuses, but recognizes it. She realizes the truth will set you free. She has had teacher’s aide training. Her goal is to go back to school and get more training. She is asking God, “What is her purpose in life?” In the past, she could not deal with her challenges in life, but now she is learning to deal with it. She is at a place where God meets her in her need.
Here are some ideas she has about Community Health and Wellness:

• Have more contact with others especially the elders
• Teach them crafts, sewing, knitting etc. For fellowship
• Let them know how important their knowledge and history is
• Young kids need more activities
• More community events for the extended family
• Need activities outside of school for the youth
• Showcase the skateboarders skills, let them fund raise with their skills for events, competitions, etc.
• Need skills and business oriented workshops
• Have the men or women coach the younger people in sports, it would help the men share their knowledge and they could give back to the community
• Cooking classes for the women, have food safe, and encourage the women to sell their wares
• Community garden to encourage growing vegetables and healthy eating. It would bring the community together for sharing, caring, respect, responsibility and communication. Growing flowers and putting them around in the community would help to beautify the place.
• People could form a committee that could fund raise e.g. make a quilt etc. To help out others who need the support.

The workshop Managing Stress was so awesome. The fishing derby held in the spring brought the whole community together. We need more events like this. One thing that has to stop is the constant gossiping and back-biting that goes on.