Latest news with #IndigenousWays
CTV News
21-06-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Organization aiming to end Winnipeg homelessness releases strategic plan
A charitable organization looking to end chronic homelessness in Winnipeg released a five-year strategic plan on Thursday to tackle the issue. End Homelessness Winnipeg (EHW), founded in 2015, brings together the homelessness-serving sector to provide leadership, support and coordination to end homelessness in the city. 'The critical underlying theme that we are focusing on over the next five years, and forever, is we want to be rooted in Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing,' said Jackie Hunt, senior director of strategy and impact for EHW. Hunt said the organization has been Indigenous-led since 2018, adding that there is an over-representation of the Indigenous population in the city's homeless demographic. The underlying theme of the strategic plan is followed with four strategic priorities, including role clarity and relevance, such as developing an advocacy roadmap and evaluating the organization's governance model. 'We try and bring community partners together to try and solve some of these issues as efficiently as we can,' said Hunt, adding that the group does a range of tasks ranging from advocacy work to research to offering support. Other strategic priorities include creating a 'culture of well-being' across the sector by focusing on resource sharing and training, as well as building trust and creating transparency through communications. 'We want to make sure that we're building trust with our community partners, our government, and our funders, to make sure that we're able to work really collaboratively,' she said. Another identified priority is adaptability and reciprocity, with goals including developing engagement strategies and exploring sustainable funding mechanisms. All four strategic priorities include a list of 'key actions' for the next five years. 'We all probably know somebody who has experienced or is experiencing homelessness,' said Hunt. 'It's everybody's job to take care of everybody, and we all have to work together on this.' For more details, EHW's five-year strategic plan can be viewed here.
Hamilton Spectator
10-05-2025
- General
- Hamilton Spectator
Indigenous Storyteller Diana Power discusses the importance of listening to stories
(ANNews) – 'If someone tells you something – let them speak their truth,' shares Indigenous storyteller Diana Power. She adds that listening without judgement, and coming from a place of understanding can support people in just wanting to be heard instead of being told what to do. This understanding that Power speaks to is rooted in writing Indigenous Health stories and shows why these stories are important for the longevity of community, and all our relations – so we can walk in good ways and support each other in times of need. As reiterated by Power, 'Indigenous Ways of Knowing is research' and these ways of knowing are lessons that Diana has learned along the way as part of her own learning journey. They are an accumulation of lived experiences we carry with us. What we carry with us, is our own unique knowledge, a perspective that can support gaps of knowledge lacking in areas of health, social inequities – all human experiences that others may never encounter or be aware of that can be written into curriculum that trickles into better understanding one-another. Indigenous Ways of Knowing as research is an accumulation of accountability, humility, introspection, community – all things that support the exploration into the unknown of both self-discovery and curiosity about all our relatives. When we are curious, we can create safety within relationships and start to build connections, and in turn be able to listen to understand the depths of peoples' stories – the truth of these stories – in hopes of discontinuing history from repeating itself. For Power, an Indigenous storyteller, 'writing is a way to share pieces of ourselves with other people…and a lot of stories need to be told.' This understanding that Power walks with comes from her own lived experience as a First Nations woman witnessing and also encountering inaccessible health services, and inaccurate information about Indigenous people resulting in Indigenous Health inequities. One thing that all Indigenous Ways of Knowing have in common is humility – being curious about what is being said and how we can come from a place of compassion and understanding. For Power, the honour of listening to stories and sharing stories is embedded in her ways of walking in the world. 'I would rather show up for someone [and listen to hear their story] than to never see them again.' Power transitions lived experiences into written stories, in part, to share perspectives on the importance of the health of Indigenous peoples. They should not be undermined because they are misunderstood, instead they should be honoured because all life is sacred. For Diana, her heart's work stems from wanting our Indigenous brothers and sisters to know that they are not alone.
