Raising our Children is an approach to ensuring the children and families in the communities are supported, and children are being raised with strong connections to family, community, spirituality, land, culture, language, and each other. It promotes a supportive environment for children to grow and focuses on setting people on a healthy path in life from a young age.
Family Health Program
Family Health will look at preconception, healthy pregnancies, prenatal care, postnatal care, breastfeeding and infant nutrition, injury prevention of babies, and well-baby visits. This program will offer training and capacity building to community-based maternal child health, child, and family health workers to conduct workshops and teachings in their communities.
Building Healthy Relationships
Building Healthy Relationship supports individuals, families, and communities in developing and maintaining healthy relationships. Healthy relationships include everything from healthy relationships with oneself (i.e. self-esteem, body image, and mental wellbeing), peers (i.e. bullying), romantic partners, families (i.e. parenting), Elders, and communities as a whole.
Youth Development
Through community engagement, youth were identified as a priority group that required targeted approaches to wellbeing. In response, Approaches to Community Wellbeing has done further engagement with First Nations youth to identify a youth-specific vision, values, and goals.
Vision
Anishinabe Youth are connected to family, community and culture and engaged in activities that promote resilience and wellbeing.
Values
In addition to the overall values for Approaches to Community Wellbeing, youth identified friends, land-based activities, education, sports, humour, and music as important values to them.
Goals
- Youth are living healthy lifestyles
- Youth have healthy relationships
- Youth have a strong voice
- Youth are following the footsteps of their ancestors
- Youth are engaging their minds towards a positive future
Services
The purpose of the Youth Development team is to Engage, Equip, and Empower youth and youth workers. This is done through:
- partnerships with community youth/health workers, and community-based and regional schools.
- presentations to youth
- presentations/trainings to youth/health workers
- a regional Youth Worker network which connects workers between communities on a regular basis to share ideas, identify professional development opportunities, and cheer each other on
- health promotion messages on the Anishinabe Youth Network Facebook page
- supporting youth and youth workers in grant-writing
- providing resources and materials to support health promotion and youth engagement
- supporting the development of Youth Councils
Program Contact
Angie Morris
T: (807) 737-5195
Ariel Root
T: (807) 737-5197
