Dene entrepreneur Tim Carwell inspired by mothers resilience

As the president of a company that provides emergency communication services, Tim Carwell says CommAlert has a goal of “keeping one million people safe a month.” According to its website, CommAlert Group is an Indigenous company that provides “state-of-the-art emergency communication services, including lone worker management, emergency alerts, crisis communications and a 24-hour emergency call centre.” Carwell says they took 50,000 check-in calls just last month. “Our expertise is keeping people safe. We like to say we want to check you in the morning and tuck you in at night,” says Carwell on the latest episode of Face to Face. Carwell is a dedicated entrepreneur but he is also deeply involved in initiatives that promote goodwill and support Indigenous communities. That’s where Gloria’s Dreams Tree comes in. Named in honour of his mother, Janette Gloria Carwell, Dreams Tree Community Investments looks to develop and deliver programs centred around traditional language, arts and culture and social enterprise. Carwell says his mother is a ‘60s Scoop survivor who was illegally adopted during a hospital stay at the age of four. She would spend the next 30 years of her life trying to reconnect with her family, who Tim Carwell says he only met for the first time in 1983. “My mom’s resilience is an inspiration. My mom’s ability to not pass on the hurt and harm that she received when she was stolen, is something that moves me to help the community, no matter where I am. And to take an approach that is more based on reciprocity, balance and telling the story all the time,” says Carwell. “She is always on my mind, I lost her last year on April 12 so the mission has become even more important,” says Carwell who is a member of Beaver First Nation. In recent years, Dreams Tree Community Investments has invested more than $2 million in 21 Indigenous led projects, spanning three provinces. One of the investments Carwell is most proud of is a mobile planetarium that provides Cree knowledge and experiences through teachings of the stars and traditional storytelling from George Desjarlais of Frog Lake First Nation. Carwell hopes Dreams Tree Investments can showcase how Indigenous social enterprise can reshape reconciliation across Turtle Island. “That people that maybe have a different opinion about how hard we work, about the impact we make, see us differently. I hope that people that don’t maybe know us as well will allow us some access to places we haven’t traditionally done. But the most important thing is language and culture,” says Carwell. Continue Reading