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Retired teacher Vicki Mather has been recognized locally, nationally and internationally for her work in promoting safer, healthier, more caring communities. And at age 60, she is still going strong.
Why does she do it? “Because teachers care. You don’t become a teacher unless you care,” says Mather. “Making this world a better place to live is the essence of teaching, I believe.”
Born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Mather moved to the Regina area when she was 11 and attended “among the last of the Prairie one-room schoolhouses outside Regina.” She obtained all three of her degrees from the University of Alberta: a BEd, an MEd in curriculum and instruction, and a PhD in education administration.
In her first year of teaching, in Boyle, Alberta, Mather taught every grade from 1 to 12, and seven different subject areas. She transferred to Edwin Parr Composite High School, in Athabasca, the next year, and in 1983, she began work at the ATA, where as an executive staff officer she took on roles, in communications, professional development and member services.
Mather also taught at the U of A and supervised master’s and doctoral students. She also supervised master’s students at Royal Roads University and the practicums of public relations graduates at MacEwan University.
In 1996, she headed the ATA’s Safe and Caring Schools Project and later founded the Society for Safe and Caring Schools and Communities (www.sacsc.ca), a charitable organization that focuses on character education, violence prevention and bullying. She served as the Society’s executive director until her retirement in 2007. Mather also served on the following boards and committees: Women In Need Growing Stronger (WINGS), an Edmonton organization that provides second-stage housing to women and children escaping violence; the Northern Alberta Red Cross; the City of Edmonton’s Safer Cities committee; three national committees for the federal Department of Justice, all focused on violence prevention and building safe communities.
For six years, she served on the executive committee of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and led a delegation to Oslo, Norway, to discuss a UN-sponsored schools program.
In 2007 Mather received an Edmonton YWCA’s Annual Woman of Distinction Award for Education. And she and her team at the Society for Safe and Caring Schools and Communities won the Dubai International Award for Best Practices in Improving the Living Environment, sponsored by the Municipality of Dubai in collaboration with the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements. “It was kind of neat, because the award was signed by the Sultan of Dubai,” Mather says.
Mather now lives in Victoria, and her life is just as busy as it always was. Along with her oldest son, she runs Retire-At-Home Services, which provides health care, personal care and home support services to seniors living at home in Edmonton and Victoria. “Seniors thrive when they are able to stay in their own homes and remain as independent as possible. It’s all about helping people maintain their dignity and respect.”
And her volunteer work continues. She is a member of a committee that raises funds for the Victoria Women’s Transition House, which provides programming for women and their children escaping violent domestic relationships, and she volunteers as a workshop presenter for the Alzheimer Society.
For Mather, giving back is something she has to do. “Living by the ethic of reciprocity is simply a responsibility of all human beings. Communities are what people make of them, and giving back to a community is what keeps our community strong.”
