About Us
The Alberta Workers Association for Research and Education is an evolving workers support space focused on research, education, and community building to combat lack of information, misinformation, community division, and worker isolation.
Our Vision
A research and educational space where workers support workers across industries, identities and immigration status.
Our Story
AWARE started as a group of concerned Albertans who have for the past decade been working with individual workers facing challenges in settling and managing their precarious working conditions.
By far these individuals have comprised temporary foreign workers and newcomers to Alberta, and more recently an increasing number of undocumented or under-employed workers. Seeking help from traditional organizations such as trade unions, immigrant support centres, and government supports has not been an avenue because the workers were either not allowed to use those vehicles of support (because of constraints from the funders/employers) or, more often, because they did not feel safe to approach these resources.
The question of who do you go to when you have no one is the voluntary support service we have tried to provide. Our volunteer activities include sometimes providing friendship, financial support, or linking the worker to resources, advocacy, or system navigational support, and most of the time all of the services.
Our loose network of individuals has slowly coalesced to develop an organization to formalize our relationship and work. This is due to the capacity issues we are facing as individuals undertaking this work as volunteers and the realization that we are beyond our individual capacity to meet the ever increasing need.
The Alberta Workers Association for Research and Education is a response to all these individual stories influenced by the changing nature of work in Alberta and globally.
Who We Are
Staff and Volunteers
Whitney Haynes, Executive Director
A founding member of AWARE, Whitney brings over a decade of experience working with undocumented and migrant worker communities in Canada, Asia, and Europe. She has academic and grassroots knowledge of global migration and labour policies.
Volunteer Team
A team of dedicated volunteers support the day to day work of AWARE.
