Kamloops Residential School: Follow-up Statement

Content warning: Residential schools, death 

Recently we shared a response addressing the news around the discovery of the remains of 215 children on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School. As the weeks have progressed, we acknowledge the ongoing investigation of additional unmarked graves on the grounds of former residential schools across Canada. We extend our thoughts to the Tk’emlups Secwépemc First Nation and each of the Indigenous communities, Nations, families and youth affected by this news.  

As a settler organization, we have a significant responsibility to call out and dismantle colonialism in the work that we do and reflect on how we have contributed and benefited from the genocidal displacement of First Nations, Métis and Inuit Peoples. At Foundry, we are working respectfully to hold and nurture relationships with Indigenous Peoples, including Indigenous youth and family advisors, staff, lead agencies and partners, who lead, guide and inform our work. 

Providing safer and more inclusive care for Indigenous young people, families and communities is our priority. In order to do this work well, we must cultivate cultural safety and humility. As an organization we strive to achieve this by:  

  1. Holding ourselves accountable when we make mistakes and learning from them. Recently, we posted a message on Facebook to honour and celebrate National Indigenous History Month. An Indigenous staff member noted that the language we used was insensitive and caused harm. We decided to take the post down and consulted with our Indigenous Wellness Team, to debrief and learn from this experience. At the moment, we are working on revising the original content and look forward to sharing this again at a later date.
  2. Making a significant commitment to developing, implementing and sustaining an Indigenous Cultural Safety and Humility Framework. This includes the creation of an Indigenous Wellness Team led and staffed by Indigenous folks in Foundry who work alongside Indigenous consultants and knowledge keepers.
  3. Making a commitment to ensure that all Foundry staff participate in ongoing learning opportunities to increase our knowledge of the historical and current experiences of colonization and genocide.
  4. Committing to hearing and telling the truth of the continuing harm resulting from the ongoing colonization of Indigenous Peoples.
  5. Committing to building resources, investing in Indigenous staff and supporting the Indigenous Wellness work across the province where Foundry has a presence.
  6. Honouring and supporting Indigenous colleagues as knowledge keepers who help guide our growth and humility in this work.  

Words and good intentions are not enough. We know that these are all starting points and that Foundry needs to do more to redress the centuries of genocide that continues to take place on the stolen, ancestral and occupied territories of First Nations, Métis and Inuit Peoples who have been here for millennia.  

We invite you to learn more from Indigenous resources that have been recommended to us by the Indigenous Wellness Team at Foundry as a starting point: 

For more information on Indigenous-led supports and services available to those who need it, please refer to these organizations below: 

Preventing Youth Suicide by Promoting Life in Online Places – project led by CMHA BC

The Foundry team is proud to have participated in this project for the Canadian Mental Health Association BC. It aims to better understand how youth suicide prevention and life promotion can be meaningfully taken up online.

This project reports on activities to date for an information-gathering and youth consultation process for professionals engaging with young people looking to PREVENT YOUTH SUICIDE BY PROMOTING LIFE IN ONLINE PLACES. Funding comes from the BC Division of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA-BC) via the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA). The ultimate purpose of the project is to inform recommendations for a forthcoming online initiative/digital campaign related to life promotion and youth suicide prevention by CMHA-BC.
It became very clear that a central feature of the work of life promotion is the relational process of cultivating hospitable places together – online and offline.

Here are the main recommendations from the project:

1) Simplify the Online Journey

Funding and organization of resources is a major barrier to more effective online help for youth. Greater collaboration between services agencies is required.

2) Policy and Regulation

Canada/BC need to establish a robust watchdog function related to online safety and youth mental health.

3) Cultivate Caring + Hospitable Spaces online

Youth are seeking more livable online spaces. They are committed to co-creating more friendly and safe user guidelines with large technology, gaming and information sites that they use frequently.

 

The 26-page report is available here. An executive summary is also available here.

Foundry’s communications response to COVID-19 – designed with, by and for youth – featured in Global Health Promotion

COVID-19 presented (and continues to present) significant and unique challenges to the young people and the families/caregivers we serve. Disruptions to school and access to services such as counselling, alongside the impacts of social distancing, have left many struggling. When the pandemic was first declared, the Foundry team mobilized to respond to these extenuating circumstances and support BC youth and their families/caregivers during this hard time. In a recent article published in Global Health Promotion, we describe our process of designing with, by and for youth our communications response. At the onset of this work we set out to achieve the following three goals:

  1. to amplify (and translate for young people and their families/caregivers) key messages released by government to support public health responses to the COVID-19 pandemic;
  2. to develop content that supports the needs of young people and their families/caregivers that existed before COVID-19 and are likely to be exacerbated as a result of this pandemic; and
  3. to develop and host opportunities through social media and website articles to engage young people and their families/caregivers by creating a sense of community and promoting togetherness and social connection during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this article, our team offers learnings and recommendations to other health promotion and integrated youth service organizations for future preparedness in the face of emergent communication needs. As always, the leadership of young people and their families/caregivers helped build our response – and they’ll continue to shape it well into the future.

Foundry’s Response to COVID-19 (March 16 – Dec 31, 2020)

Foundry’s response to the report, In Plain Sight: Addressing Indigenous-specific Racism and Discrimination in BC Health Care.

On November 30, 2020, Independent Reviewer Hon. Dr. M.E. Turpel-Lafond (Aki-Kwe) released her report, In Plain Sight: Addressing Indigenous-specific Racism and Discrimination in B.C. Health Care, with the findings of an investigation to address Indigenous-specific racism in BC’s health care system.

This report clearly shows that interpersonal, organizational and systemic Indigenous-specific racism exists across BC’s healthcare system. This racism, and the ongoing impacts of colonialism, results in inequities across all areas of wellness – in health care, and also housing, employment and day-to-day safety for Indigenous Peoples.

Foundry central office acknowledges the truths contained in this report and the truths written and unwritten that came before, including the Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.  We thank and honour the courageous, resilient people who have shared their stories. We ask that all our partners read through this report and reflect on its importance and meaning.

As part of BC’s health care system, one of many systems that have and continue to oppress Indigenous Peoples, Foundry commits to zero tolerance of racism within our organization. We have made mistakes and we have taken too long in addressing the harm that Indigenous young people and families may face in accessing our services. We acknowledge we have a tremendous amount of work ahead to ensure our policies, procedures and services are safe for Indigenous young people, families and communities. To do this, we are learning from young people, families, centres and communities about Indigenous cultural safety and are developing a framework to support an action plan to embed the rights of Indigenous Peoples to culturally safe, responsive and compassionate care in communities across BC. Through this, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action and the United Nations Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will guide us.

We are committed to learning from this report, and to working alongside First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities, youth and families to ensure we are moving in the best direction to support Indigenous cultural safety and humility.

If you would like to reach out to Foundry central office to engage in this discussion, please contact Seren Friskie, Youth Peer Engagement Coordinator, at sfriskie@foundrybc.ca.

This report may bring up feelings of distress, grief and discomfort for some readers. Please see FNHA’s Health and Wellness Support for Indigenous Peoples for culturally safe and trauma-informed resources.

 

References

Dr. Skye Pamela Barbic: Young people are not the COVID-19 problem, they are the solution

Foundry’s Response to COVID-19