We Meet Every Wednesday @ 6pm
We Meet Every Wednesday @ 6pm
We educate ourselves on Manitoba Child Welfare to become fearless and share that knowledge with our community.
We meet weekly to learn about the system, share resources and support each other. This is our oldest initiative and still happens in 2021 with hybrid events that are in person for vaccinated families and also on zoom.
Food As Medicine is a research partnership with Fearless R2W, National Diabetes Association & the University of Manitoba that aims to improve wellness, reduce diabetes and increase access to healthy food.
We have developed a number of resources to help with education on child welfare, as well as a network to bring in additional knowledge. We also have Manitoba Legislation included here!
This program trains volunteers to successfully pass provincial licensing and provide high quality security services in the City of Winnipeg
We engaged with Indigenous Youth Aging Out of Care to create a ROAD MAP to address the housing challenges of leaving CFS.
Kishaadigeh focuses on promoting Indigenous self-determination in research through the development of community-based research lodges in partnership with five Manitoba Indigenous organizations.
We meet weekly at sharing and learning circles. The topics and guests vary based on the community's needs. We welcome all parents in the R2W and beyond as well as community helpers to build system literacy and share resources. We also eat together. Our meetings are confidential and no photos of families will be taken or shared without consent.
AMA – “Ask Mary Anything” is a weekly opportunity to have the community's questions answered by Mary - our “Super Granny” Burton and the rest of the Fearless Team. You can submit your questions through our AMA form and watch for your answers on our youtube channel.
During Covid-19 our in-person meetings have been moved online - please see our Facebook page for updates!
On September 8th, 2017, approximately 80 residents of Winnipeg’s inner city came together in a special event featuring the Bell Tower Family, the National Diabetes Association and researchers from the University of Manitoba to discuss FOOD AS MEDICINE. The conversation was highlighted by our usual Food Not Bombs vegetable soup (veggies donated by Food Fare) and some delicious Bannock Pizza from Neechi Commons. The discussion asked community members to identify ways we could use food to improve our health, how to improve services and costs so that all members of our community could access healthy and culturally relevant food.
Here is a summary of our conversations grouped into the following 7 areas:
FOOD BANKS
PHYSICAL WELLNESS
COMMUNITY GARDENS/GREEN HOUSES
LIVING WITH HEALTH CHALLENGES
TRADITIONAL FOODS
ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE/HEALTHY FOOD IN THE INNER CITY
KNOWLEDGE SHARING
As you can see, there are various long term and short term initiatives or projects we could be working on as a community to try and improve the health of our relatives living in poverty or those who are already living with chronic illness. We will be sharing the academic report with community members when it is finished and will also be continuing our relationship with the National Aboriginal Diabetes Association to ensure we can do prevention and maintenance for our relatives living with diabetes.
Online Resources – We use our online resources and social media pages to educate the public about our activities and ideas.Check out our Ask Mary Anything Youtube Channel, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Wordpress!
Presentations – As more members of the community learn about the work of Fearless R2W, we are often asked to come and present our work. If you have an interest in public speaking, there is a standard Fearless R2W Presentation you can practice delivering. We also invite helpers with Fearless R2W to attend meetings out in the community, to meet with organizations, CFS or government officials to discuss our recommendations.
Pamphlets & Zines – We are developing a comprehensive pamphlet to introduce ourselves to parents in the neighbourhood as well as a Zine with Parents rights and different resources for parents.The Fearless Zine is an easy to make, easy to reproduce, easy to understand summary of our work and our recommendations.
Manitoba Legislation - We study the legislation on child welfare at our weekly Learning Circles to build our system literacy and to find out children's, parent's and grandparent's rights. Knowing the legislation means that we know the laws that social workers are held to, so we know what we need to do to bring children home.
Here are the main pieces of legislation to know:
Community Networking – We learn from and call on many of the other organizations working with families on child welfare. Here are a few community resources to check out:
This program trains volunteers to successfully pass provincial licensing and provide high quality security services in the City of Winnipeg; starting with select Winnipeg Libraries locations. Successful graduates become part of the Community Safety Hosts team and perform either specialized duties or general support.
NOTE: THE DEADLINE FOR THIS PROGRAM HAS PASSED
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE PARTICIPANTS WHO HAVE BEEN SELECTED STAY TUNED TO SEE SUBSEQUENT OPPORTUNITIES
Who should apply?
The primary purpose of this opportunity is to help young people aging out of care and those struggling with social support systems. This program offers an unparalleled opportunity for individuals to increase their skills and gain work experience. Application is open to all people who are ages 18-35, aging out of care and are struggling with EIA, Housing and systems.
If you are looking to make a difference, live in the North End and have a commitment to quality and best-in-class service, then you may be ready for this opportunity!
Qualifications and Assets:
Time Commitment:
Pass Criteria:
Benefits:
Application Process:
“Housing Solutions for Indigenous Youth Aging Out of Care in Winnipeg” has been announced as one of twelve projects being funded from Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation as part of the National Housing Strategy.
This is a one year project, with HTFC Planning & Design as the main proponent, recieving $122,666 from CMHC to do this solutions lab featuring partnerships with Aboriginal Youth Opportunities (AYO), HTFC Planning & Design; Ready to Shift and Scale (RSS); Nigaanii Wabiski Mikanak Ogichidaa (NWMO) so far!! We are also grateful to have suppport from the University of Manitoba, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences throughout this initiative. AYO hosted a Meet Me at the Bell Tower Gathering last week on this topic and also hosted the first of their leadership lab team gatherings to kick off the project. Future gatherings and identifying additional partners will happen throughout the duration of the project.
“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 age out. I am very happy the project uses Indigenous youth voices, like mine, that know from experience what’s not working, and what is.” – Kakeka ThunderSky
Our Solutions Lab will address the issues of housing insecurity and homelessness that Indigenous youth in care in Winnipeg face when they age out of the child welfare system at age 18. Our project leverages the processes and methodologies of Solutions Labs to collaboratively explore the specific needs of Indigenous youth in Winnipeg who have grown up in the care of Manitoba’s child welfare system and who are at the point where their institutional supports are removed. Many child welfare advocates and organizations have identified this pivotal point in the experience of a youth in care, a point at which they face a high probability of entering into a cycle of poverty and housing insecurity or homelessness.
We will approach this issue from different perspectives and worldviews, including those of people who:
Housing Goals – By teaming up with people in and around the system, we aim to build bridges of empathy and provide advocates and policymakers with a more complete picture of the issue.
Our hope is that the solutions that are co-developed in this process will be taken up by decision makers to close the gaps and further reduce the number of young people facing homelessness year over year.
Anyone wanting to get involved, support the development, or speak to someone about this initiative please contact us!
Kishaadigeh–she who guards the lodge–is the name for the Manitoba Network Environment for Indigenous Health Research (NEIHR) funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. This project aims to up-skill research capacity and infrastructure for Indigenous communities and organizations undertaking health research. We consider the lodge as a place where relationships guide the development of Indigenous research, from the initiation of an idea to the development and implementation of projects, to the final outputs. The research lodges will develop a pathway for existing and upcoming Indigenous scholars to work alongside and within Indigenous organizations in a way that’s culturally meaningful, ethical and impactful.
Kishaadigeh, which is currently hosted at The University of Winnipeg, focuses on promoting Indigenous self-determination in research through the development of community-based research lodges in partnership with five Manitoba Indigenous organizations: the First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba (FNHSSM), the Manitoba Association of Friendship Centres (MAC), the Manitoba Inuit Association (MIA), Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre (AHWC), and Fearless R2W.
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