After more than a decade working in education, Melanie Gareau has decided to step into the business world.
On Oct. 1, the former principal and education consultant officially opened Empower Me Youth Development Coaching, a Bellevue-based business offering one-on-one coaching, workshops, and events to help students build confidence, manage emotions, and develop essential life skills.
“I feel like I’ve experienced every emotion,” Gareau said when asked about the experience of starting a small business. “It hasn’t been a hard process, because I do have access to professionals and experts who can help me along with different parts of the business building, every aspect of it, so I feel like I’m getting help.
“There is help out there, but as a new business owner, I don’t know if what I’m doing is enough, (or) if there are other things I’m missing.”
Gareau said it’s been a team effort to get the new business going. She credits organizations like the Women Entrepreneurs of Saskatchewan (WES) for helping her out.
“I don’t feel like I’m alone, but it has been a rollercoaster I have to say,” she said. “It isn’t easy, but I feel like I’ve been able to celebrate a lot of small successes along the way.”
Gareau enjoyed her time as a teacher and principal, but was worried about the lack of counselling services available for students. She thought school counsellors were doing a good job, but there weren’t enough of them, and the demand for services quickly exceeded the supply.
Those concerns, and her love of working with teenagers, inspired her to start Empower Me this fall. She stepped away from her education job this past summer to focus on Empower Me full time.
“I’ve always had this desire to help teens navigate difficult situations, (and) difficult challenges, and this is a good way for me to do it,” she explained. “It bothered me when I worked in a school that every kid didn’t have access to additional support. We have our school councillors, they’re amazing, but they’re just aren’t enough of them to deal with all the situations we see at school. Only the kids who have very severe challenges have access to those councillors, and I’ve always felt like there was a big hole we needed to fill.”
Gareau began by offering one-on-one coaching services, but hopes to expand to group sessions and school presentations.
Through her coaching, Gareau helps students become aware of negative self-talk or limiting beliefs, and helps them challenge those narratives. She said the goal is to help youth feel like they are a little bit more in control of what their life looks like.
She also partnered with Kandace Korycki of Cradled Wellness to host the first No Filter youth conference. The event offers sessions for students between the ages of 10 and 18. It’s scheduled for Nov. 8 in Wakaw.
The conference breakout sessions and workshops will focus on the power of thoughts, how changing thought patterns can change our behaviours, and how to set boundaries in friendships, among other things.
“I wish it could be longer,” Gareau said when asked about the conference. “Lots of those topics, I feel like, we could talk about all day…. It’s a conference that every single child can benefit from.”
Gareau said they haven’t discussed plans for a second conference, but she’s open to hosting one. As a principal, she remembered how the school division often had to bring speakers or consultants in from outside the province to address these issues. She’s hopeful they can develop a school speaking program based in Saskatchewan that can fill those holes.
Ideally, she’d like to see the conference offered in different parts of Saskatchewan, but discussion are in the very early stages.
“It would be nice to go and offer it in a northern community and anywhere really,” she said. “We’d have to have someone try and help us along with getting out there and stuff. If we can ask somebody in those communities (to) work with us, that would be helpful. That’s my vision, but we haven’t discussed it further than that.”
@kerr_jas • jason.kerr@paherald.sk.ca
