August 11, 2022 

“I believe it all has a purpose; I have a purpose.”

That mantra is a fundamental driver for Christina Draegen’s personal and professional pursuits. Working with the Native Court-worker and Counselling Association of BC (NCCABC) for the past eleven years, Christina has seized many opportunities to influence direct services related to justice in northern British Columbia.

One of those opportunities has been to facilitate workshops on Women’s Right to be Safe. “This is,” she says, “an important conversation to have that may save your life or the lives of someone dear to you.” Christina, a proud Indigenous woman from the Algonquin and Ojibwa First Nation, began her career as a family care worker for a local First Nations community. She launched the Women’s Right To Be Safe workshops seven years ago after reading the second edition of the NCCABC’s Women’s Right To Be Safe booklet.

“I was so impressed with the information that was in that booklet. I instantly felt very proud to be attached to providing that valuable information to communities. So l thought that this is just way too valuable not to be shared broadly.” Its guiding principle can be found in another of Christina’s life lesson mantras. “We are not able to change the past, but we definitely have a responsibility to be able to influence positive change in the future.”

Christina’s aim in this regard has always been to empower women and young girls to live a happy and active life and be mindful of potential harms.

Please join all of us at NCCABC in wishing Christina every success in her new role with the Indian Residential School Survivor Society.