In the fifth episode of the Creating Communities of Care Podcast, we finally dive deep into culturally-specific programming: what it is, what it means for program participants, and the promise it holds for a better, more inclusive future.
Each of the four partner organizations implement their own take on culturally-specific programming, borrowing from Afrocentric thinking and Indigenous customary law to deliver services that help make participants feel seen, heard, believed, and ultimately respected. The Mi’kmaq Legal Support Network’s sentencing circles are an example of this type of service delivery in action.
RESOURCES:
If you heard parts of your own story in this podcast, and are interested in learning more about the organizations mentioned in this episode, please refer to the following:
More about Creating Communities of Care
Mi’kmaw Legal Support Network:
- Contact or intake number/email: 902-379-2042 OR 902-895-1141
- Link to online intake portal: www.MLSN.ca
Association of Black Social Workers:
- Contact or intake number/email: ccc@nsabsw.ca OR 902-407-8809
- Link to online intake portal: https://www.nsabsw.ca/contactus/
Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia:
Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre:
What is Creating Communities of Care?
In an effort to address the barriers and gaps in care experienced by African Nova Scotian and Urban Indigenous women in Kjipuktuk (Halifax, Nova Scotia), four organizations banded together to provide culturally-specific programming to address the issue of gender-based violence as it appears in these two communities.
Inspired by Indigenous customary law and Afrocentricity, these programs aim to address the failures of our inherited colonial systems by connecting women with other members of their community in spaces where their culture is integrated into the care they receive. Although this project has seen huge successes so far, but there is still much to learn, and much more work to do.