• Housing Solutions •
for Indigenous youth aging out of care
Who are we?
Housing Solutions for Indigenous Youth Aging Out of Care in Winnipeg is a community-based project to support the visioning and creation of housing solutions to address housing insecurity and homelessness among Indigenous youth in foster care when they age out of the child welfare system at age 18 in Winnipeg. In partnership with Aboriginal Youth Opportunities, HTFC Planning & Design, Nigaanii Wabiski Mikanak Ogichidaa, University of Manitoba’s Rady Faculty of Health Science, Shift Collaborative, and other supporters such as Fearless R2W, the one-year project is funded through the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s National Housing Strategy and supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the McConnell Foundation’s Innoweave.
What are we doing?
Our project incorporates Indigenous knowledge and wisdom, and social innovation lab approaches, to collaboratively explore the specific needs of Indigenous youth in Winnipeg who have grown up in foster care and are at the point where institutional supports are removed. We will approach this challenge from different perspectives and worldviews, including those of people who:
Through our engagements we aim to build bridges of empathy and provide advocates, service providers, and policymakers with a more complete picture of the systems impacting Indigenous youth aging out of care. The co-creation of solutions will be scaled up among decision-makers to close service gaps and further reduce the number of Indigenous youth facing housing insecurity and homelessness once they age out of Manitoba’s child welfare system.
- are or were in the system (youth in care, aging out of care or aged out of care
- are working "in" the system (child welfare workers, service providers, administrators, policymakers, etc)
- are working “around” the system (e.g. advocates, families, community organizers, housing professionals, etc.)
Through our engagements we aim to build bridges of empathy and provide advocates, service providers, and policymakers with a more complete picture of the systems impacting Indigenous youth aging out of care. The co-creation of solutions will be scaled up among decision-makers to close service gaps and further reduce the number of Indigenous youth facing housing insecurity and homelessness once they age out of Manitoba’s child welfare system.
What principles and values do we follow?
Relational Accountability:
We remain mutually accountable to all our relations to all kinds of life, past, present, and future. Relationship-building and strengthening supports the creation of trust, respect, and transparency to ensure relational accountability. Relationships are intended to be ongoing, genuine interactions grounded in shared interests, co-learning, empathy, humility, allyship, reciprocity, and ancestral ties. They are always approached as a ceremony, with high spiritual and moral integrity.
“Two-Eyed Seeing”:
We equally respect the contributions and co-existence of Indigenous and Western paradigms by creating an ethical space of engagement while simultaneously centering and privileging local knowledges, voices, methods, and experiences.
We equally respect the contributions and co-existence of Indigenous and Western paradigms by creating an ethical space of engagement while simultaneously centering and privileging local knowledges, voices, methods, and experiences.
Indigenous Self-Determination & Sovereignty:
We ensure urban Indigenous Peoples’ inherent and treaty rights to self-determination in (i.e. autonomy and control over decisions and processes) and sovereignty (i.e. non-interference during decision-making) at all stages of engagement and collaboration. Through allyship and rotational leadership, we equitably distribute power and resources to ensure local control, shared decision-making, and reciprocal accountability. Indigenous People’s should be able to make flexible decisions to terminate or modify collaborations that overextend community time, resources, and capacity
We ensure urban Indigenous Peoples’ inherent and treaty rights to self-determination in (i.e. autonomy and control over decisions and processes) and sovereignty (i.e. non-interference during decision-making) at all stages of engagement and collaboration. Through allyship and rotational leadership, we equitably distribute power and resources to ensure local control, shared decision-making, and reciprocal accountability. Indigenous People’s should be able to make flexible decisions to terminate or modify collaborations that overextend community time, resources, and capacity
Capacity Building & Mentorship:
We ensure enough time and resources are available for inter-generational and interdisciplinary capacity-building through mentorship, training, healing, and shared learning. We recognize, value, and compensate the expertise and labour of those offering technical and experiential knowledge based on systems literacy and lived experience.
We ensure enough time and resources are available for inter-generational and interdisciplinary capacity-building through mentorship, training, healing, and shared learning. We recognize, value, and compensate the expertise and labour of those offering technical and experiential knowledge based on systems literacy and lived experience.
Wholistic Systems Thinking, Knowledge Sharing & Collective Action:
We seek to capture and understand the complex factors impacting Indigenous youth homelessness and housing insecurity at various systems levels, as well as related demonstrations of local advocacy, activism, and resurgence. We recognize the interconnectedness of the Medicine Wheel and the significance of social and Indigenous determinants of health, wellness, and safety. Despite the need to understand these complex wholistic perspectives, ongoing and reciprocal knowledge exchange and translation remains pragmatic to produce relevant individual and collective actions.
We seek to capture and understand the complex factors impacting Indigenous youth homelessness and housing insecurity at various systems levels, as well as related demonstrations of local advocacy, activism, and resurgence. We recognize the interconnectedness of the Medicine Wheel and the significance of social and Indigenous determinants of health, wellness, and safety. Despite the need to understand these complex wholistic perspectives, ongoing and reciprocal knowledge exchange and translation remains pragmatic to produce relevant individual and collective actions.
Cultural Safety & Reclamation:
We create a safe space for shared learning and action that recognizes and accounts for unequal power relations, history, and Indigenous rights to avoid pan-Indigenization, perpetuation of stereotypes, and marginalization of Indigenous and local knowledges and peoples. To promote cultural safety, we further contribute to processes of reclaiming cultural identity, kinship relations, and land occupation.
We create a safe space for shared learning and action that recognizes and accounts for unequal power relations, history, and Indigenous rights to avoid pan-Indigenization, perpetuation of stereotypes, and marginalization of Indigenous and local knowledges and peoples. To promote cultural safety, we further contribute to processes of reclaiming cultural identity, kinship relations, and land occupation.
Honouring & Celebrating:
We engage as humans first to distinguish the importance of laughter, humility, helping, feasting, and the role of celebration and honoring. While we identify and act on the underlying sources of disadvantage and exclusion impacting Indigenous youth aging out of care, we simultaneously honour and celebrate the strengths and welcoming nature of local communities as well as the sacred stories and gifts we all share.
We engage as humans first to distinguish the importance of laughter, humility, helping, feasting, and the role of celebration and honoring. While we identify and act on the underlying sources of disadvantage and exclusion impacting Indigenous youth aging out of care, we simultaneously honour and celebrate the strengths and welcoming nature of local communities as well as the sacred stories and gifts we all share.
Get in Touch With Us
Zoe Mager
HTFC
zmager@htfc.mb.ca
Ron & Darrien
AYO! & Nigaanii Mikanak Ogichidaa
darrien.morton@umanitoba.ca
info@ayomovement.com
Michael & Mary
Fearless R2W
info@fearlessr2w.ca
“I am beyond excited to be a part in project because I know first hand how inconsistent and challenging navigating the systems are before and after you even ahead out. I am vet happy the project uses Indigenous youth voices, like mine, that know from experience what’s not working, and what is.” – Kakeka ThunderSky
