Local recognized for creating inclusive environment in Lethbridge
LETHBRIDGE – One City of Lethbridge employee has been honoured with an award of a lifetime.
Roy Pogorzelski, an Inclusion Consultant for the City’s Community & Social Development group, has been chosen for the 2016 Human Rights Champion award for the outstanding work he’s done to create “a place where all are included, participate and belong”.
He’s recognized among two other recipients, but is the first person outside of Edmonton to win.
“It is quite an honour. I’ve worked a long time in the field of social justice and human rights,” said Pogorzelski.
“It’s a very abstract field. It’s fraught with barriers and challenges at every angle you approach it… Like I often tell a lot of people, it’s not something I went to university to train for. It was just part of the way I live my life, and part of my upbringing being a Metis person.”
Roy was nominated anonymously, but hopes to find out who it was.
He will accept the award from the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights during a special ceremony in Edmonton on Sunday, December 11. The keynote speaker for the event is Marie-Claude Landry, Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
The John Humphrey Centre aims to advance rights through education, collaboration and relationship building in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
