Director of Corporate Services, UCCM Anishnaabe Police Service, Canada
Taylor Sayers is a member of the Ketegaunseebee First Nation and currently works as the Director of Corporate Services with UCCM Anishnaabe Police Service. The police service serves six First Nation communities on and around Manitoulin Island. For the past 15 years she has provided senior leadership to the corporate functions of the police service, and has worked with the Police Service’s Commission, and the Chief of Police to meet and deliver the organization’s strategic objectives and meet its vision and mission. She is also a part of the negotiating team that secures the organization’s ongoing core funding with Public Safety Canada and the Solicitor General.
Taylor has been instrumental in being a part of the developments of culturally responsive policing initiatives for the organization, including the following innovative projects: Enaag-Dawaab-Jig (Citizens Review Committee), the Social Navigator Initiative, and the Lighting the Fire Within project. Under the Lighting the Fire Within initiative she developed the culture and trauma informed curriculum offered by the police service. The curriculum focuses on providing participants with crisis intervention and de-escalation training, responding to mental health and addictions crises in communities, trauma informed approaches to policing from a culturally safe lens, and ensuring a proactive approach to an individual’s own mental health as a first responder.
She is very passionate about mental health in the workplace and contributes as a member to various provincial and national working groups that focus on improving the mental health of public safety personnel (PSP). Some of the working groups include the Indigenous Police Chiefs of Ontario (IPCO), the Solicitor General’s Mental Health Secretariat – Joint Mental Health Collaboration Table, and the Executive Committee of the Canadian Public Safety Leadership.
Taylor also has served as a key part of ensuring pension parity and wage parity for Indigenous Police Service employees. In addition to her work, she is an active member of her community and serves as a member of the Board of Governors for her alma mater, Algoma University, and regularly volunteers for her children’s sports teams.
