Deborah Dunn
Stories & Testimonials
DEBORAH DUNN
- Montreal, QC
- Contemporary, Improvisation
- Career Pathway: Home Care/Support Worker
Deborah Dunn: When the pandemic hit, I started working at Maimonides Geriatric Centre as a Patient Care Assistant. I stayed for two years before shifting to the CLSC Benny Farm where my official title became ‘Health and social care assistant’. I now do home care for various kinds of clients, mostly the elderly but also people living with disabilityand illness.
DEBORAH’S STORY
“As I was nearing fifty, the DTRC offered me a session with a career counsellor, who suggested I become a psychotherapist. This made some sense but I was disturbed by the eight years of training, so I did a Master’s in Dance at UQAM instead, which took me an appalling seven years to complete. I guess I needed the time; I would never have realized that I should try care work if I had not done that research. A DTRC Retraining Grant helped me through the Master’s, as did a few choreographic commissions and a part-time job playing faux-patients at The McGill Medical Simulation Centre. For the final phase of my transition towards the workforce, I received Full-time Subsistence Grant while taking a course in Institutional and Home Care Assistance.
Paying my yearly dues to the DTRC always gave me a sense of security, something that was sorely lacking in the twenty-five years I devoted to dance. Now I have a government job with a decent pension. Being a person that was rather comfortable with risk, I had no idea how stabilizing financial predictability would be. I am very gratefulto the DTRC for helping me get here.”
DTRC’S SUPPORT
- Counselling
- Retraining Grant
- FTS-I Subsistence Grant (Post-Performance Pathway)
