Along with founder Susan Hawkins, and four youth directors, the organization is run almost entirely by young volunteers from across central and eastern Canada. Click on a person's name or a picture to meet our staff.
Zoé has been involved with Rescue Mission since grade seven, and has continued to be active through high school and university. In 1999, along with Melanie and other members of the Canadian delegation, she travelled to Hawaii, as an activist, to attend the Millennium Young Peoples Congress. It was an unforgettable experience. The following year, Zoé traveled to England - to Peace Child International headquarters - to assist with the writing/editing/design and layout of an international book on Children's Rights. Beyond these activities, her travels have taken her throughout England, Spain, Morocco, the US and across Canada.
For two years after high school, Zoé studied International Development at Dalhousie University in Halifax - a program which mostly focussed on the Third World. While at Dal she volunteered with Frontier College in Halifax, helping underprivileged children with their homework. As well, she also found time to write several articles for the Dalhousie Newspaper. During her first year at Dalhousie, Zoé was a member of Canada's National Youth Roundtable on the Environment, representing Prince Edward Island. She met with government officials, discussed new and fresh ideas and shared her thoughts about Canada's environmental issues with other youth roundtable members.
Zoé was a member of the Rape Crisis Centre in Charlottetown as a volunteer on the helpline. The training was intense twelve weeks of lectures ranging from psychiatric issues to suicide to flashbacks and feminism. She has also worked with the Muskoka Interval House program for children in Huntsville, Ontario. Zoé took time off from university, moved to Toronto, found that five months there was more than enough, and moved back to PEI enrolling at the University of Prince Edward Island. While taking selected courses, she worked at a long-term care facility. Little did she know that this would be the beginning of a whole new focus. Zoé fell in love with working with seniors, applied for the Gerontology program at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario where she is currently finishing her undergraduate degree.
With her start in studying the environment at such a young age, she feels it will no doubt be part of her psyche for many years to come. Sometimes ignorance is bliss when it comes to the destructive habits society has developed but Zoé feels that education is key in discussing, sharing and making a difference - and that each one of us has a role to play.
- Tyler Hawkins
- Jonathan Clark
- Michelle Luxon
- Aaron Hawkins