NSGEU Education Profile

*This article appeared in the summer edition of the Union Stand

If you take any NSGEU Education Courses, you may be lucky enough to have one of our many Facilitators who help with your course. We are profiling a few of these incredible people in upcoming issues of The Stand.

Facilitator Profile: Kim Manthorne, Local 6

Kim has 27 years of experience working in the Department of Community Services. This includes 16 years where she supported people with mental illness out in the community and 11 years as a family support worker with Child Protection.

Kim has been involved with the union her whole working life and became more active after 2009 when she was appointed to the Women’s Issues Committee. She served on the Committee for two terms and was inspired and empowered by all the things they were able to accomplish. This includes starting the NSGEU Cancer Support Fund. This Fund provides support for members who have been diagnosed with cancer themselves or have a family member who has been diagnosed with cancer. For information about this fund, click here.

Kim’s love of adult education, learning, and meeting new people, has driven her to teach and play leadership roles throughout her life. For the past 25 years she has consistently been in roles where she teaches life skills, including first aid. She began facilitating with the NSGEU in 2016 at Weeklong School. Kim studies adult education, which involves drawing from the experience and knowledge that exists in people who are in the room participating in the course. The goal of the educational experience, she says, is to have the participants develop confidence and knowledge.

She’s looking forward to teaching an upcoming course, new to the NSGEU, called “Mental Health: Challenging Stigma in the Workplace.” It is about mental health challenges in the workplace and is taking place in Bridgewater in October. She also will be facilitating a Steward Orientation workshop. She is curious to see how everyone feels as they come together for the first time in over a year and is thinking that it may vary from individual to individual depending on comfort level.

Little known fact about Kim is that she roller skates and is in a roller derby club, the Anchor City Rollers. Her derby name is Kim Reaper and when she referees it is Reffy Schtuff.
For Kim, learning and sharing stories in an educational environment is fun – and she is all about the fun. Kim lives in Dartmouth with her partner and two kids.