Meet Sue

Accomplishments

A small sample of Sue's involvement in major initiatives, her expertise and accomplishments: 

Program leadership

• Ontario’s After School program: Led the establishment provincial program standards, a comprehensive evaluation framework, developed a new government grant accountability system and launched a new $10 million provincial after school program for marginalized children and youth delivered by community organizations.

• Canada’s first video contest for youth: Developed and delivered Canada’s first cross-Canada initiative for youth, engaging all Canadian provinces and territories and the federal government.

• Community events: Chaired major community events exceeding outreach and fundraising goals.

Workplace Health and Safety

• 70% reduction in workplace injuries to teenagers: Delivered multi-disciplinary provincial and national young worker safety initiatives including in-school student education, campaigns, web-based and social media outreach, contests, employer awareness and compliance and parent engagement.

• Safety education embedded in Ontario school system: Workplace heath and safety has been required learning for Ontario students since 1999.

• Ministry of Labour health and safety inspector, manager and industrial specialist: including: workplace safety audits, investigations, compliance expertise, established sector strategies, set standards for workplaces and inspectors, policy development and developed Ontario’s powered lift truck standards.

• Whole school approach: Developed and published internationally a holistic strategy for schools to address the safety of students, staff and visitors.

Outreach, Collaboration and Education

Outreach

• Keynote and session speaker including: World Congress on Occupational Health and Safety: Germany 2014: Mainstreaming Health and Safety in Education: Italy 2012; Ontario teachers conferences; Ontario and Canadian employer conferences; International Association of Labour Investigators conference; Canadian Society of Safety Engineering conferences, University Faculties of Education. Addressed countless provincial, national and international audiences on workplace safety topics

• Publications: The series includes a broad spectrum of newsletters, resources and information support for employers, teachers and youth

• Campaigns: Collaboration on provincial and national multi-media campaigns to raise awareness, compliance and/or participation

Collaboration

• Ontario’s Youth Strategy: As a founding member of the Ontario government youth strategy development and implementation team, contributed to the overall strategy and inclusion of working youth.

• Ontario education system: Established a collaborative, sustained working relationship with education partners to advance workplace safety education for students

• Stakeholder engagement: Developed a stakeholder engagement strategy, partner engagement and consultation standards.

Education

• E-based learning programs: Developed and launched several resources including: Work Smart Campus, Canada’s first e-workplace safety leadership program for post-secondary students; Passport to Safety aimed at youth and workplace leaders; Work Smart Ontario, a web site for youth, parents and employers of youth.

• Ontario teacher support system: Established and fostered a province-wide support system to support Ontario teachers who deliver health and safety lessons to students

• Safety education for people with special learning needs: Among the suite of safety education resources developed and published, the only resource of its kind Canada to educate special needs learners about workplace safety - a 200-page heath and safety resource is now in its third printing.

Specialized Young Worker Safety Expertise

Sue Boychuk is widely recognized as an expert in injury prevention for young, new and other vulnerable workers.  Under her leadership, unparalleled results and accomplishments have been achieved, including:

• The injury rate for teenagers in Ontario decreased by 70%.

• Since 2000, students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 in approximately 5000 Ontario schools receive in-school safety education as part of the standard provincial curriculum.

• A Canada-wide youth safety video contest and inter-jurisdictional teams were launched and maintained.

• Ontario teachers received the classroom-friendly, curriculum-based resource materials and support they needed to deliver safety education to approx. 2 million students.

• Successful public outreach campaigns to raise awareness.

• A holistic approach to manage health and safety in schools (Whole-school approach) and other workplaces was developed and presented internationally.

• Countless international delegates, Canadian employers, educators and other professionals have attended Sue's engaging inspirational presentations and workshops.

Testimonials

“You demonstrated strong collaborative skills in your relationships with colleagues from across the Ontario Pubic Service and subject matter experts from various levels of government. Your commitment to the It’s Your Job video contest is evident in this modern approach to engage youth in the prevention of workplace injuries, while raising awareness in each province and territory and at the federal level”   

                - Ontario Deputy Minister of Labour

"I have known Sue Boychuk for the past 20 years, in her former capacity at the Ministry of Labour. I have always been appreciative of the knowledge, experience and upbeat attitude Sue brought to her role.

In my role as Curriculum Consultant and Program Coordinator, I depended on accurate and up to date information that I could share with my colleagues. A highly effective speaker and presenter, Sue always demonstrates a professional, caring and positive attitude to everything she tackles”.

               - Cesare Di Donato, Executive Director, Industry Education Council of Hamilton                                                                                                                     

" I have known Sue Boychuk for a number of years as a member of the Rotary Club of Ancaster AM. Sue has been involved in a number of projects and fundraisers for our club. She is very focused and is effective at planning, organizing and executing these projects. She is a strategist and brings creativity and innovation to everything she does."

               - Eileen Baggs R.N., B.A.

"Sue Boychuk has been the heart, soul and driving force behind the advocacy for young workers’ information, education and understanding in Ontario. As a facilitator, Sue brought together participants from a variety of jurisdictions and interests to work in partnership to create resources, collect accurate statistics and develop practical tools for both teachers and students. Her greatest ability is to see the vision of what could be and the applied knowledge on how to make it a reality. 

As a speaker, she is both enthusiastic and informed which allows the audience to easily grasp her message, ponder the implications and commit to action.  Sue is someone with incredible drive and energy while maintaining a down-to-earth attitude and a keen sense of good fun. She has made a difference in the lives of hundreds of teachers and educators and thousands of students and young workers."

                    - Kathleen Douglass, Workplace Safety and Prevention Services

“Utilizing her strength in community relations, keen understanding of people and positive engagement, Sue advanced our community presence by leveraging new opportunities for media coverage, worked with us on re-branding, opened our doors to the community, appropriately engaged key supporters and designed and delivered motivational presentations.”

- Clare Freeman, Executive Director, Dr. Bob Kemp Hospice

Examples of comments made by attendees at Sue's presentations and workshops:

• Sue's great, dynamic, real! Lots of energy

• Light hearted presenter. Bravo! Thank you!

• Excellent! Your enthusiasm and caring is contagious

• Enthusiasm and passion

• Need to get more people to come and see (Sue's) presentations

• Extraordinary as usual

• Can make a dry but essential topic interesting

• Wealth of knowledge and resources provided

• Makes you more aware

• Excellent speaker who provided in-depth information on subject matter

• Sue is a great presenter!