Duty to Support Wrapping Families with Supports documentary film panel

All are invited to join in exploring the root causes of systemic violence that threatens the health and well-being of children, youth, and families and ways to wrap diverse families with supports to enable all families to thrive.

VCC Indigenous Services and Nursing is honoured to host a hybrid presentation and panel discussion with Raincity Housing to share about their important work to wrap families with diverse supports, including the role of trauma informed, culturally safe, and relational nursing care, to address the traumatic impacts of structural-systemic violence on families.

This panel discussion will be followed by a hybrid documentary screening of West Coast LEAF's Kids Are Only Kids Once film, created in partnership with 3 Crows Productions, followed by a panel discussion with three parent-advocates, one of the filmmakers, and a moderator from West Coast LEAF (bios below).

Lunch: A bannock lunch will be provided by Big City Bannock funded by VCC's Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee with beverages offered by the VCC BSN department.

Location: Room 1227 Health Sciences Building (Building B), Vancouver Community College-Clark Campus and on zoom.

Directions: Across from the VCC-Clark sky train station: walk across parking lot to North Building and we are on first floor.

If coming from Broadway street: head north and cross the breezeway to Building B. Go down one set of stairs to room 1227.

Introducing panel members:

Linoy Alkalay Project Coordinator, RainCity Housing I am of Middle Eastern Jewish descent and an uninvited guest to the unceded stolen lands of the Coast Salish people. I currently work as a Project Coordinator at RainCity Housing working on a project that looks at addressing systemic violence through harm reduction in the family system. Before joining RainCity Housing, I worked in various frontline roles supporting women, youth, and families that are impacted by trauma, substance use, and mental health challenges. I am passionate about community approaches to break down the system and believe in addressing the impact of trauma through building and strengthening connection. I hold a Masters in Leadership from Royal Roads University and a Graduate Certificate in Complex Trauma and Child Sexual Abuse Intervention from the Justice Institute of British Columbia.

Candice Noris Peer Facilitator, RainCity Housing Hello my name is Candice, however the spirits recognize me as Eagle Spirit Woman. I am of Dene, Cree, Scottish, and Irish descent. I work proudly in my community as a Dene, Cree cultural facilitator, and cultural research facilitator. Doing openings and Smudging/Brusing in the community to bring in the spirits and welcome our ancestors to gatherings. My goal in life is to re-awaken indigenous people to a connection of healing, through culture and ceremony. To bring indigenous voices culture and Knowledge to the Western world, and incorporate both knowings. To reawaken our DNA to our almost crushed traditions. By healing through our DNA we can safely keep our children out of the Ministry of Children and Family Development, instead foster Indigenous ways of knowing and being to supporting Indigenous mothers with wrap around care so they can safely care for their own children and relearn what was taken away from us as First Nations people.

Kari Stout is currently working as a program coordinator for the Healthiest Babies Possible and Youth Pregnancy and Parenting Program in Vancouver, BC. Kari lives, works and plays in Vancouver, on the unceded and traditional territories of theSəl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), and the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) Nations, with her husband and 2 teenage daughters. Kari has a Masters degree in Social Work and has worked in child protection and perinatal social work for the past 24 years. Kari has also briefly worked in other BC communities including Fort Nelson, Bella Coola, Powell River, Ashcroft, and Squamish.

Kari's passion in supporting pregnant people stems from years working as a social worker in a variety of settings, including MCFD, Sheway, BC Women’s Hospital and Healthiest Babies Possible/Youth Pregnancy and Parenting Program. Kari has a passion in addressing social determinants of health in order improve outcomes for families and for future generations. She has also seen how the miracle of birth can change people’s lives and how supports can be an such an integral part of this changelysha Collie

Alysha Collie is a multidisciplinary Indigenous artist from the Soowahlie First Nation mixed with settler and African ancestry. Collie graduated from the University of the Fraser Valley with a Bachelor of Science degree. She is an Indigenous Educational Storyteller and a Filmmaker at 3 Crows Productions. She also creates custom beadwork through her own company, The Collie Collective.

Blue Thunderbird Woman (Heather Spence)

I am an Indigenous woman, mother of 5 and grandmother of 5. I grew up in a First Nations community, which empowers me to continue my work in this field. I have always showed love and acceptance for everyone, including my own family. I founded and created an Indigenous Led Peer Support group called KANDU and this work led me into helping with the creation of PACK. My path of action is to rid of the barriers and systems we as Indigenous Peoples face in our everyday struggles with our broken society.

Patricia Dawn

Patricia Dawn is a Metis Cree Sacred Life Giver and an advocate for the Red Willow Womyn’s Society. In January 2018, Patricia Dawn advocated and interrupted the removal of a 6-day-old infant at the local hospital, keeping the baby with Mom. Patricia seeks to end colonial child protection practices by acknowledging First Nations Sacred Law as a primary promise of truth and reconciliation.

Willow Morgan Giesinger

My name is Willow, I founded Wild Women of the North Society in response to urgent need for food support and outreach in my community. This led to my work with BC Yukon Drug War Survivors which funded and helped start ten drug user groups across the province. I have 3 bio children and 7 step children from previous relationships that am still a stand by guardian for. The youngest being 15. I have struggled as a working single parent raising children whose parents all struggle with substance use issues and housing instability. I advocated for myself through poverty, unstable housing, food insecurity while sometimes working three jobs as MCFD involvement “monitored” my situation. I have experienced severe domestic abuse and my children later experienced abuse while under a “safety plan” and extended family care plan enforced by MCFD. I have spent the last ten years advocating for parents in my community.

Alana Prochuk

Alana Prochuk (she/they) lives uninvited on stolen Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh homelands and is of mixed European ancestry. Alana is the Manager of Public Legal Education for West Coast LEAF, a non-profit in BC that uses legal strategies to advance gender justice. Alana was honoured to provide organizational support for the Kids Are Only Kids Once documentary project.

For nursing and health science students (and interested community members) joining- here are some recommended pre-readings/viewings:

McKenzie, H., Varcoe, C., Browne, A.J., Day, L. (2015). Disrupting the continuities among residential schools, the ‘sixties scoop’, and child welfare: An analysis of colonial and neocolonial discourses , policies and practices for change. International Indigenous Policy Journal, 7(2).

LINK to article: https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/iipj/article/download/7489/6133

EQUIP Modules: Trauma and Violence Informed Care, Cultural Safety, Harm Reduction: https://equiphealthcare.ca/

Wrapping Our Ways Around them: https://cwrp.ca/sites/default/files/publications/en/wowat_bc_cfcsa_1.pdf

Mandatory Supporting: https://jmacforfamilies.org/mandated-supporting

Highly recommended films:

Little Bird series TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iUe9IHr-oY&ab_channel=Crave

Bones of Crows TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILF57eabq60&ab_channel=RottenTomatoesIndie