Halliday thrilled to take executive director role with Parkland Restorative Justice

Daily Herald File Photo Chrissy Halliday

Emokhare Paul Anthony

Daily Herald

Prince Albert Parkland Restorative Justice (PRJ) has a new executive director after Crystal Halliday was recently appointed to the role.

Halliday has been actively involved with several different non-profits over the years in the city, and said she’s learned plenty of skills by watching the leaders she worked under.

When the opportunity came to put those skills to work at Parkland Restorative Justice, she jumped at it.

“It’s something that I am very passionate about,” she said. “I’ve worked with some really great executive directors over the years, and I feel like I’ve learned a certain skillset from that.”

Halliday previously served as the organization’s secretary-treasurer overseeing their recent audit. While that was happening, the board struck a committee to find a new executive director. They were about to present a job posting for approval when they decided to ask her to do it instead.

“Deacon Brad Taylor gave me a call and said, ‘I’m not sure if you’re looking for a job. I’m not sure if this is something that would actually interest you, but we do believe you might be (a good fit). At first I was very taken aback. I didn’t even know what to say to him. I just said I would think about it, I would pray on it, and within 24 hours I kind of had my answer.”

Halliday was one of seven applicants for the position. Taylor serves as the board chair, and said Halliday’s knowledge of the organization was a major asset, but so was her experience working with other non-profits.

“We went through seven applicants … and she still stood out as the strongest candidate, so we did our due process,” Taylor said. “We had some great quality applicants and we interviewed a two and Chrissy, for the type of position that we wanted—executive director and community coordinator—she had the right skill set and inside knowledge with the history of the organization. She can start in right off the hop. She’s informed with our vision and our support.”

Halliday will take over a role that looks a bit different from what her predecessors was, although the job title is the same. The search committee also rearranged duties between the executive director and program coordinator Seth Michael.

Halliday said it will still take some training to get fully prepared, but she’s confident she’s a good fit.

“I’m not saying that it’s going to be completely smooth sailing, but I just think that we are an amazing team,” she said. “We do have a matching vision, and we have just overall values in our lives that match up. When you’re working in a non-profit sector, when you’re working on helping other people, working with people who have the same values is one of the most important things.”

Going forward, Halliday said she hopes to stabilize the organization’s yearly funding, while also introducing some new programs to their current offerings.

editorial@paherald.sk.ca

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