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Dwayne is also a student of Scottish Gaelic, and acts as the organizer for his local community Gaelic class and serves as the Treasurer for FIOS, an province-wide organization dedicated to promoting community-based learning of Gaelic through leading-edge teaching methods.
As well, Dwayne has had a positive impact on communities beyond Canada's borders. With a solid background in Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) from the Coady International Institute, and the experience of coordinating a successful Asset Mapping Program in Judique, Dwayne was awarded an internship to Botswana, in southern Africa, in 2005.
In Botswana, Dwayne worked with an Adult Recreation Centre for people living with and dealing with HIV/AIDS. His application of the ABCD philosophy, which has foundations in the Antigonish Movement, the largest and most significant example of positive economic development our riding has ever seen, by focussing on the strengths of the organization and the community, led to the tripling of the Centre's membership in the three and half month period he was there.
After graduating from St.FX in 2006 with a Joint Advanced Major in Development Studies and Anthropology (highest level degree offered for Development Studies at St.FX), and four straight years of being on the Dean's List, Dwayne was again awarded another internship from the Coady, this time a coveted Youth-In-Partnership internship, which brought him back to Africa.
This time, in Ethiopia, Dwayne was once again able to put his ABCD skills to use, working with Oxfam Canada, the Coady's partner in Ethiopia. He investigated potential partners to expand the ABCD programme, and travelled across Ethiopia assiting the Oxfam Canada coordinators in dispensing ABCD tools and techniques to communities who are continuing, to this day, to demonstrate what is possible when people in communities drive the development process with support from the government, not the other way around.
Dwayne returned home to work for JADA on a project with the local fishing harbour at Baxter's Cove. He helped to organize the fishers and the project led to the idea of a lobster hatchery to serve all the harbours of the west coast of Cape Breton Island. He continues to lend assistance to the project, which is currently in its initial phase.
Now, employed by the Port Hood Development Society, as a Community Development Officer and as Manager of the local community cable television station, Dwayne is doing what he does best: focusing on the positives and strengths of the community, and the region, to develop new programs for the station, and assisting in a variety of community initatives.
Dwayne MacEachern was nominated as the candidate for the Green Party of Canada in Cape Breton - Canso in May 2007.
