Mental Wellness Projects
Lateral Violence
Lateral Violence Project
Lateral violence education was identified as a need within the Wolastoqey communities. Lateral violence workshops were offered to community members and the responses from these workshops further solidified this need across all communities. Elders and youth were invited to share their perspectives and advice regarding lateral violence through a poster series. This poster series served as an awareness campaign to get the message out to communities about the issues of lateral violence.
Youth Harm Reduction
Wolankeyutikon Youth Harm Reduction Project
WTCI received funding from Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) to fund our Wolankeyutikon (Self-care) youth harm reduction project. Wolastoqey youth participated in sharing circles where they were provided a safe space to share their thoughts, feelings and insight regarding harm reduction within their communities. The feedback from these sharing circles will be used to create and offer other harm reduction services and opportunities in the future.
Wolastoqey youth also gathered to receive harm reduction training from Healing Our Nations, continuing to have the chance to express themselves as well as learning from our Elder’s and Knowledge Carriers about their perspectives on harm reduction and its importance within our communities. We are excited to announce that the Walnkeyutikon (Self-care) project has received additional funding, therefore this project will be ongoing and WTCI will continue to offer harm reduction services to youth
Men’s Mental Wellness
Men’s Mental Wellness Event
After the success of the Wolastoqey Women’s Health & Wellness Summit, many requests were received for WTCI to host a similar event for Men. Wolastoqey Men gathered in a culturally safe space. This event was a way to access intergenerational healing through Wolastoqey knowledge in a way that builds capacity for individuals, families, and communities to lead.
By building Indigenous leadership within our communities, this event provided the opportunity for community-members to learn from our Elders, Knowledge-Holders, and Leaders in spaces that are intended to share knowledge, experience, and wisdom. WTCI is planning to host a follow-up event as a continuation of this project.
Land-Based Harm Reduction
Land-Based Harm Reduction Project
The WTCI Health and Education departments are working together to enhance harm reduction for Wolastoqey children and youth through language and land-based learning. More information is to come as this project is new and will be ongoing.This is a paragraph, one or more lines of text. Each paragraph is displayed in a new line.
Sankewitahasuwakon Indian Day
Sankewitahasuwakon Indian Day School Project
We are very excited to inform you that WTCI successfully received a Bell Let’s Talk Diversity Fund grant for a 3-year project titled: Sankewitahasuwakon (Peaceful Thoughts). Through the implementation of Sankewitahasuwakon, we will be able to provide programming that supports the intergenerational healing of Indian day school Survivors and their families in the Wolastoqey Nation in New Brunswick.
Survivors have often expressed feeling forgotten in the conversation of Truth and Reconciliation, though the premise of Indian day schools within communities was the same as Indian residential schools. The time is now to hear their experiences, acknowledge their pain and grief, and provide culturally-relevant and trauma-informed support for intergenerational healing. With the support of Bell Lets Talk, the Wolastoqey Tribal Council Inc. will be able to host cultural events and a gathering of Survivors, working towards a final commemorative piece to give proper acknowledgement to Survivors.
Sankewitahasuwakon programming will be mental health-focused and planned to foster a sense of safety and security, provide a sense of community, and strengthen the beautiful Wolastoqey identity. To recover our identities, we must be able to come together and assist our Survivors in recreating their cultural identity as a community. If we can break the cycle by reclaiming what was taken from us, with Survivors and their families, we can create a stronger Wolastoqey Nation.