empower
2025-2026 Grant Recipients
Completed
Walking Together: Indigenous Teachings for Family Physicians in Foundry Centres across British Columbia: Unceded traditional territory of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations (Vancouver, BC)
This project hosted a half-day Indigenous led gathering in Vancouver, bringing together family physicians and primary care providers from Foundry Centres, including those from rural and remote centres. Across BC, Foundry Centres provide integrated services for young people aged 12-24 and their families. Family physicians are central to these services, yet many seek deeper understanding of Indigenous perspectives to better support Indigenous young people and families. The planned gathering included a ceremony, circle dialogue and a medicine walk, all guided by Elders, Knowledge Keepers, Indigenous youth and an Indigenous physician. This event strengthened physician capacity for culturally safe, youth-centered care in a primary care setting, offered physicians with practical guidance for supporting Indigenous youth using an integrated Western and Indigenous approach, offering experiential learning and build relationships with Indigenous Elders, Knowledge Keepers, youth and physicians. This relational and experiential approach allowed participants to engage directly with Indigenous community members and learn through shared experience rather than solely through classroom-based education.
Revitalizing Connection of Urban Indigenous and Western Healthcare Clinic to Land-based Healing Practices and Traditional Medicine Teachings: Unceded traditional territory of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations (Vancouver, BC)
This project established a food sovereignty and traditional medicine garden at the Vancouver Aboriginal Health Society Clinic, an Indigenous-run primary care clinic serving Vancouver and the Downtown Eastside. In reciprocal partnership with xʷc̓ic̓əsəm (meaning ‘the place where we grow’ in hən̓ q̓ əmin̓ əm) at UBC (on the traditional, unceded territory of the Musqueam), Lu'ma Medical Clinic, and Hawk's Garden, clinic staff received teachings, seeds, and gardening expertise. Through a summer harvest, the team learned how to integrate and prioritize traditional medicines in the holistic care including attention to the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health of patients they serve and Indigenous patients appreciated having access to traditional medicines in the clinic. The garden provided more than 200 pounds of food to the community, and relationships built through the partnership led to two new hires, a cultural worker and a housing worker.
Walking Alongside: Unceded traditional territory of the Quw'utsun' people (Duncan, BC)
This project developed culturally safe, visually based end-of-life resources for Indigenous patients and families on the traditional, unceded territory of the Quw'utsun First Nations. Many First Nations patients in the community were dying in hospital, away from their families and communities, and few were supported to die at home. Existing resources for families caring for a dying loved one are built from a colonial lens and are not accessible. Drawing inspiration from visual resources developed in Australia to support Indigenous peoples to die "on country," the team consulted with Elders, Indigenous nurses, and counsellors at the Quw'utsun and Stz'uminus Elders' Centres. Those consulted agreed that visual resources help caregivers support their loved ones at home and also identified a need for dying patients to express their own physical, emotional, and spiritual needs, including the rituals and ceremonies that hold sacred space at the end of life. Two resources were co-developed with an Indigenous Elder, nurses, and counsellors. One, to allow a patient to identify their own physical, emotional and spiritual needs to help them feel safe in this vulnerable time. The other, a visual based resource which helps caregivers care for their loved ones at the end of their life. [Note: The image is taken from a first draft, awaiting feedback prior to its final iteration]
Healing Our Spaces, Honouring Our Stories: Unceded traditional territory of the Haíɫzaqv People of the Heiltsuk Territory (Bella Bella, BC)
This project aimed to create a healthcare environment at ƛ̓uxválásu̓ilas Heiltsuk Hospital and Bella Bella Medical Clinic that more visibly reflects Heiltsuk identity, culture, language, and belonging, on the unceded territory of the Haíɫzaqv People of the Heiltsuk. The project began with relationship-building and conversations with community members and healthcare leadership about how cultural safety could be reflected in the physical environment. The project also respected local cultural practices by allowing the pace and timing of activities to be guided by community needs, including pausing consultation during periods of grief. A Heiltsuk artist was commissioned to create carvings for a public space in the hospital, potentially traditional masks representing health and wellness and/or totem poles. The project served to strengthen relationships, opened important conversations about cultural safety and belonging, and highlighted that creating culturally safe spaces requires time and that the work of cultural safety is relational - an ongoing process, that is non-linear, with success depending on community influence over both what happens and when.
Learning in Good Relation: Building Cultural Safety and the Good Relations Care Pathway at REACH: Unceded traditional territory of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations (Vancouver, BC)
This project created space for Indigenous-led learning, honest conversations about experiences of care, and opportunities for teams at REACH Community Health Centre to meet community partners where they are. The project began with a Two-Eyed Seeing workshop, facilitated by Marissa McIntyre of Len Pierre Consulting and attended by REACH staff and invited community guests. This workshop allowed for a shared starting point in thinking about how Indigenous and Western ways of knowing can inform care together. After this workshop and an opportunity for reflection, REACH held two Indigenous Patient Talking Circles facilitated by an Indigenous partner. This provided an opportunity for patients to speak candidly about what has helped them feel safe and supported, and about experiences that created barriers to accessing care. This was then followed by REACH visiting the Aboriginal Mother Centre for a learning exchange, opened by Elder Darcey Sedgwick as well as a visit to the Urban Native Youth Association (UNYA) where REACH met with its Traditional Healer and Clinic Manager. These visits allowed for relationship building between organizations and laying groundwork for better coordination of services for people seeking care. Lastly, the REACH staff gathered for a debrief of what had been shared with them by Indigenous patients. Staff identified three places to begin: advocacy and accompaniment; cultural safety learning grounded in lived experience; and someone welcoming and supportive at the point of entry. This exercise allowed for identification of a starting point while also keeping in mind a broader set of priorities for patients. The team at REACH will be working on the creation of Good Relations Care Pathway handbook as a next step, that will be reviewed with Indigenous patients, staff and partners before implementation. When reflecting on learnings from the project, REACH has said "We have been reminded that culturally safer care is experienced in everyday moments: the tone of a welcome, the willingness to adapt a rule, the time taken to explain a decision, and whether someone stays alongside a patient who needs support," and that "partner visits and patient conversations are not simply steps toward producing a pathway; they are part of the pathway itself"
The project acknowledges that the meaningful outcome of this project is not a single event or document. It is the connections that were strengthened, the trust patients placed in the team when they shared their experiences, and the responsibility REACH now has to act on what was shared.
In Progress
“Seeing Ourselves Well”: Honouring Tsleil-Waututh Cultural Knowledge & Ways of Knowing (hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ title to be added with Elder/Knowledge-Keeper guidance): Unceded traditional territory of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations (Vancouver, BC)
This project aims to create culturally grounded educational and visual materials that honour Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s thousands-of-years-long presence on these lands and bridge medical and traditional understandings of health and healing. Materials will be created through engagement with Tsleil-Waututh Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and the Language & Culture Department. This will include: a bilingual (English + hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓) “Seeing Ourselves well” booklet which will link common medical conditions to Tsleil-Waututh teaches on health and wellness, design and installation of a permanent visual display within the clinic, facilitation of circles guided by Elders and Knowledge Keepers to gather teachings, language and permissions rooted in community storytelling and lastly, a reflection tool for clinicians to embody Two-Eyed Seeing in daily practice. By pairing land-based imagery and traditional language with medical concepts, “Seeing Ourselves Well” intends to respect, recognition, and balance between clinical practice and Tsleil-Waututh teachings and culture.
Alert Bay (‘Yalis) Elders Fitness Pilot: unceded traditional territory of the ‘Namgis First Nation (Alert Bay, BC)
This project will create a safe and accessible exercise space with the primary goal of improving elders' mobility and supporting diabetes management in a manner that is culturally safe, community-driven, and holistic. This will create new ways of being and working with Indigenous patients in community, with the hope that it will create a tighter circle of care with and for patients. This pilot project aims to address the healthcare system's limitation in how to deliver high-quality care for Indigenous patients by being an example of how healthcare providers can adapt so that Indigenous patients can experience a new way their medical team can provide them with the support they need for their medical conditions.