Since graduating from the U of R, Shawn Fraser BA’07 has made a career dedicated to caring for community. Following older siblings to Luther College from Carnduff Saskatchewan, Shawn found a built-in community of like-minded people that has helped him build a fulfilling life here in Regina. A career that has thus far included work with Regina’s Carmichael Outreach, the YMCA Regina, and a term on Regina City Council has led him to his current role as Chief Executive Officer of the John Howard Society Saskatchewan where he and a dedicated team work to help people who are at risk or involved in the criminal justice system. He talks to Degrees about what he loves about his work, the value of a smaller university experience, and what he’s looking forward to next.
You've worked consistently in public and community service through non-profit organizations. Did you always know you were interested in this type of work? What drew you to it?
I knew I wanted to go to university but I first took a year off to do Katimavik, a Government of Canada funded program, focussed on engaging young people in community service while traveling across the country. I found it very rewarding and ended up coming to the U of R to study political science the following year. There were a few key experiences at the U of R that geared me towards a career in community work – in my first year, I enrolled in a new Luther program called Inter Disciplinary Studies and later I took a course called Leadership and Dialogue, both of which had a community service component. I think my work life so far has been largely based on those key experiences, and my time at the U of R as a whole.
You’ve mentioned the community you found through the U of R – is that something that has been sustained post-university? Are you still in touch with some of the same people?
When I arrived at the U of R, I moved into Luther Residence. It was full of other people in the that exact same situation that I was. Unlike high school, everyone was there because we wanted to be, and there was a space to make friends because all of us were from other places and didn’t know many people in the city yet. It can be hard to break into a community in a new place, but university campuses can definitely make it easier. I still have relationships with many people that I first met at the U of R.
The John Howard Society of Saskatchewan has launched several new initiatives this past year. Can you talk a bit about how these developments came to be and the role they play in the community?
JHSS predominately works with people who have had or are at risk of having contact with the criminal justice system. I've been in this role for almost six years now, and it has been busy time at the organization. In the past few years, we have expanded our services in all of the communities we operate in. In Prince Albert we have added supports for youth exiting the care of Social Services, in Moose Jaw, we opened a new co-ed youth home and a homeless shelter, in Saskatoon we purchased a nine unit apartment building to help support young people, and in Regina we both increased our programing for youth and purchased a new office building on Broad St.
We have also added services to help people who want to pursue a criminal record suspension and expanded our adult housing services across the province.
JHSS recently started a partnership with the Ministry of Health to help deliver Integrated Youth Services (IYS). In our role as the backbone agency for IYS, we help delivery funding and manage contracts with partner organizations who will operate mental health-focused drop-in centres for youth. By the spring of 2025, these centres will be operational in Humbolt, Moose Jaw, Regina, and Sturgeon Lake First Nation. These centres are meant to be one-stop shops for youth – pairing those mental-health resources that the Health Authority has to the connections with youth in the community that we and our partners are more able to facilitate.
This fall we were also able to partner with the Lac La Ronge Indian Band to provide record suspension services in their community. As an organization with a Provincial mandate, we always want to do a better job in serving Northern communities, so we were very grateful for that partnership.
At the end of the day, it is your people who matter most, and we are lucky to have such a good team who are all pushing in the same direction.
What keeps you interested in doing the work that you do?
I grew up one generation off the farm and I’ve always admired farmers’ ability to tinker — if something is broken, you have to fix it. I was a town kid, so I never learned to weld, but I’ve always felt that getting to work in organizational structures, non-profit or otherwise, is my kind of tinkering. Everyday you get to try to help things work better and solve problems.
I feel fortunate to have had several jobs where you get to see the impact of your work in some pretty immediate ways. My first job in the non-profit sector was as the Executive Director at Carmichael Outreach. That was really intense and fulfilling work. I’ve found that when you work within bigger organizational structures there’s more stability but change and new ideas can take forever to take hold. If a bigger organization is like a ship — hard to change direction quickly — Carmichael was a motorboat. We got to try new things all the time, and if it didn’t work, we would change course and move on to the next thing. It was a high-paced job, and I feel very grateful for having had it.
From there, I went on to become a stay-at-home dad, and the city councillor for Regina’s Ward 3. At 30 years of age, I was the youngest person on council at that time by quite a long shot. There was a lot I learned about how that system works and I’m also very grateful for that opportunity. I have an undergraduate degree in political science, and getting to serve on Regina city council felt like a master’s degree to me. It was first-hand experience to learn how the municipal political system actually works.
Two years into city council, we had our second child. That meant my wife could be at home for parental leave, so along with the councillor role, I ended up signing on at the YMCA Regina helping to oversee the federal government’s homelessness funding for Regina and rural Saskatchewan. I really enjoyed my time at the YMCA – I got to work with many organizations from across the province and saw how they were making a real difference in the lives of people experiencing homelessness. While at the YMCA, we also helped develop a Plan to End Homelessness in Regina.
We had our third child in May of 2016, so my wife and I decided it was for the best not to run for city council again that fall. Just after the election, my family and I used our parental leave to take a four-month road trip to Mexico. It really was the opportunity of a lifetime. In 2019, my current role at JHSS came up. They took a risk on me, and nearly six years later, we’ve been able to accomplish a lot. Again, lots of tinkering — and it’s a bigger organization than Carmichael, so this came with a new set of lessons.
What’s on the horizon for you – what are you looking forward to?
In my personal life, I’m very grateful for having had many different jobs I look back on fondly, but family is most important to me. I’ve got four kids now – a 13-year-old, a 10-year-old, an eight-year-old, and a three-year-old, so, between work and home-life it’s a pretty full chapter right now.
At JHSS we’ve seen a real phase of growth over the last few years. I hope the next chapter sees more growth, but also a chance to take a breath and solidify some of the change we have already been going through. At the heart of it all is trying to find ways to support people and help reduce contact with the criminal justice system.
As for the world, it is hard to deny that there’s a lot of change and uncertainty right now. That can be scary, but it can also bring opportunities for positive change. I keep my mind on that. You have to look for the positive in uncertain times and whether at home or at work, there is always more to be done.
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