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Achieving Our Goals: One Step at a Time

Karihwáhstha will achieve its shared vision by realizing five overarching goals and objectives. These goals were identified during the 2024 National Public Policy Circle Gathering — and act as our roadmap.

We have connected goals with actionable steps and accountability measures. As we collaborate to achieve the goals, our accomplishments will appear on the right-hand side of the page. Our platform will measure the percentage of the goal achieved in the bar in real time.

In a very visual way, we will see that every step we take contributes to the overall success of Karihwáhstha.

Goal #1

Implement mandatory Cultural Safety Training (CST) programs for all healthcare professionals and ensure accessibility.

 
 
25% Progress
25% Progress

Planned Initiatives

  • Encourage intercultural communication
  • Adopt strengths-based training and use CST to advocate for systemic change
  • Include lateral violence training
  • Include schools in training initiatives
  • Create walking medicine trails and recognize food as medicine
  • Avoid tokenism and respect self-location
  • Prepare for pushback and develop backup strategies
  • Incorporate language and culture into healthcare
  • Remove barriers to harvested food in healthcare

In Progress

  • Define CST trainers
  • Develop region-specific and accessible CST
  • Return to ethical values and respect for all
  • Engage knowledge keepers and elders as advisors
  • Address ongoing colonialism
  • Acknowledge food trauma and establish a traditional food bank hub

Goal #2

Promote Indigenous-led policymaking to address systemic barriers and challenges.

 
 
15% Progress
15% Progress

Planned Initiatives

  • Advocate for Indigenous leadership and voices at policy tables
  • Recognize intersectionality in policy development
  • Understand and address the role of patriarchy in colonial governance
  • Promote participatory democracy
  • Identify and support policy leaders for effective implementation
  • Map Indigenous policy pathways and identify benefits to all stakeholders
  • Train government officials on Natural Law
  • Trust Indigenous governance structures for policy planning and implementation
  • Own and develop Indigenous policies
  • Remove administrative burdens to focus on meaningful work
  • Ensure representation of diverse Indigenous cultures

In Progress

  • Adopt an Indigenous-led approach to policy consultation
  • Incorporate traditional knowledge and practices
  • Prioritize Natural Law over colonial patriarchal systems in policy development
  • Respect treaties and enhance monitoring/reporting for accountability
  • Focus on protection of land, air, water, and health
  • Train facilitators and support mentorship programs
  • Respect distinct needs of each Indigenous community, from remote to urban settings
  • Move beyond self-determination to achieve full sovereignty, tailored to each community

Goal #3

Foster trust and build long-term relationships between governments and Indigenous communities to enhance understanding and cooperation while respecting Indigenous sovereignty.

 
 
10% Progress
10% Progress

Planned Initiatives

  • Establish a network to identify community needs and maintain consistent understanding
  • Develop partnership and data sharing agreements for reciprocal accountability
  • Renew treaties and honour ancestor commitments
  • Support communal approaches and long-term community champions
  • Facilitate community knowledge exchange and support grassroots initiatives
  • Mandate mentorship and capacity building for incoming positions
  • Report back to the community on processes, responsibilities, mandates, and funding around diabetes wellness by summer 2025, and promote transparency

In Progress

  • Rebuild ethics and create diabetes-specific calls to action based on UNDRIP and TRC
  • Build capacity for cultural safety and data sovereignty, and mentorship programs, ensuring community ownership and long-term champions
  • Ensure sovereignty over data, land and food
  • Create an online repository for budget, policy, and jurisdictional information
  • Elevate Indigenous priorities and voices, focusing on co-developing priorities and accountability measures with communities
  • Build trust by ensuring access to culture and land and reducing government distrust

Goal #4

Increase access to healthcare resources and preventive tools while reviewing and mitigating extractive resource practices that impact Indigenous communities negatively, promoting social equity and sustainable resource management.

 
 
5% Progress
5% Progress

Planned Initiatives

  • Engage communities to identify gaps in healthcare access, develop, and implement plans with measurable outcomes and support capacity building
  • Ensure full transparency of government funds for Indigenous health and direct 100% to Indigenous health agencies
  • Establish a 100%-owned Indigenous health agency with Indigenous oversight and representation in funding decisions
  • Transparency in funding sources and leveraging partnerships for program development
  • Build a repository of Canadian health agencies with Indigenous oversight and identify Indigenous leaders for funding representation
  • Remove barriers from time-limited funding and colonial reporting requirements
  • Identify and mitigate top extractive resource practices and develop sustainable relationships with resource extraction companies promoting social equity
  • Promote policies against non-sustainable resource companies
  • Adopt participatory democracy principles
  • Advocate for autonomous healthcare systems and changes in funding processes
  • Document and integrate localized traditional health and wellness resources alongside clinical healthcare, and support knowledge sharing through websites and e-newsletters
  • Create jobs in sustainable resource management
  • Ensure food access and promote physical activity
  • Cover health benefits for Elders, helpers, and healers
  • Eliminate out-of-pocket medical expenses
  • Expand Indigenous cohort programs for nursing and social work and enhance formal peer support and mentorships
  • Reduce bureaucratic reporting requirements for communities
  • Include First Nations voices in project approvals and design
  • Create action plans for implementation without government input
  • Legislate Indigenous authority over traditional territories and resource management
  • Develop localized self-advocacy guides for healthcare
  • Support traditional governance systems and values
  • Consider more benefits than monetary for Impact Benefit Agreements (IBAs)
  • Utilize traditional knowledge to inform resource policies
  • Reduce large bureaucratic positions and shift resources closer to communities
  • Simplify access to essential diabetes medications and tools
  • Consult with a distinctions-based approach regarding land and resource issues

In Progress

  • Review and learn from successful health systems
  • Credit Indigenous knowledge and support activities over prescriptions
  • Define healing and wellness from an Indigenous perspective
  • Incorporate “Good Mind” principles in inclusion and consensus
  • Commit to protecting access to land-based practices
  • Increase Indigenous-led initiatives and scale successful programs
  • Acknowledge traditional knowledge keepers and develop educational resources

Goal #5

Integrate trauma-informed healing practices, promote physical movement initiatives, and empower youth through mentorship and capacity-building programs, thereby supporting wholistic health and wellness strategies across Indigenous communities.

 
 
55% Progress
55% Progress

Planned Initiatives

  • Create processes and governance templates for NGOs to funnel money into community-designed programs
  • Facilitate youth and elder connections through land-based activities
  • Incorporate experiential learning tailored to specific Nations and communities
  • Mentor youth with healthy elders
  • Support epigenetic strengths and memory
  • Mentor Indigenous individuals into healthcare roles for long-term retention
  • Connect Head Starts with long-term care homes
  • Honour traditional healing and medicine practices without requiring evidence-based validation
  • Focus on rites of passage for all genders
  • Screen healthy Indigenous trainers with guidance from elders
  • Integrate various ways of knowing, including dreams and historical perspectives

In Progress

  • Empower communities to define their needs and provide self-directed programs with necessary resources
  • Develop peer-mediated programs focusing on wellness in Indigenous communities
  • Incorporate Natural Law in capacity building efforts
  • Incorporate physical, mental, and emotional exercises into wellness programs
  • Include mental health as a key component of wholistic wellness, aligning with the First Nations Health and Wellness perspective
  • Support Elders and promote physical and traditional activities
  • Encourage physical movement through sports, recreation and fitness
  • Teach mental health basics and coping strategies
  • Foster peer and community support groups
  • Provide a platform for sharing and learning about existing initiatives
  • Screen trainers for health and suitability
  • Define and focus on capacity building, including employment and careers
  • Listen to and act on community needs
  • Integrate traditional activities and community care into wellness programs
  • Support sport and wellbeing programs in communities
  • Create and support cultural training camps for youth and adults
  • Provide funds for recreation, cultural, and wellbeing programs
  • Develop trauma-informed care practices and include mandatory trauma-informed practices in all screening processes
  • Offer trauma-informed training and more Indigenous-managed clinics
  • Allow more time for building relationships and other processes