Kelly offers a variety of different services that have been developed from the personal and professional experiences of both herself and family members, as well as the greater Indigenous community. Below are a variety of different workshops offered. If there is something that you are looking for but don't see it listed - send an email to discuss personalizing a program to fit your needs.
Consulting & Other Services
Indigenous Cultural Competency Training
Foundational Course:
Too often we are bombarded with frightening statistics enumerating the social and economic
challenges faced by Indigenous people and communities in Canada today. Rather than view
these statistics in isolation, Kelly believes that they are better processed when considered
through a lens of cause and effect.
Beginning prior to contact and moving into modern society, Kelly will take participants through
an introduction to Indigenous culture that compares what was here, what was brought here,
and how those very different world views collided as the country of Canada was formed.
Participants will leave with a better understanding of Indigenous culture, a better awareness of
the challenges faced by Indigenous people and communities, and an introduction to
relationship building in order to address the history of assimilation and inequities.
Building Your Competency (Foundational Course a pre-requisite)
This session builds on the Foundation to Cultural Competency workshop to provide a richer
knowledge base, and more tools for people working in Indigenous communities. This
presentation assumes some level of cultural competency and allows participants to examine
their own experiences and paradigms.
The session begins with small group work entitled “What Would You Have Done?”. Real life
scenarios are provided for participants to discuss and to examine true interactions with First
Nation/Indigenous communities and people.
After a short recap of the learnings of Day One, information is then shared on a number of
different topics: Diversity in Indigenous communities, Political structures in First Nation
communities today, both on and off reserve, Resurgence of Ceremony, Protocols and
Relationship Building and Safety.
The workshop wraps up with additional small group work where participants can utilize the
skills they have learned that day to replicate healthy interactions with Indigenous people and
communities.
Allyship
(Foundational Course & Building Your Competency are pre-requisites)
One of the most misunderstood concepts in supporting marginalized groups in our society
today is that of allyship. What does it take to be an ally? How do you learn how to be an ally in
a way that is supportive and respectful?
This program has been designed to look at those questions and prepares participants to define
their own role as an ally to any marginalized group with a focus on Indigenous populations.
Moving past knowledge and understanding of historic issues, it encourages individuals to self-
examine their own education and societal views in order to use their position and privilege to
support others. It is important that workshop participants come to the workshop with a solid
education on Indigenous issues and the realities facing Indigenous people in Canadian society
today.
The program will include the following:
- What is an ally?
- Types of allyship
- How do you see yourself as an ally?
- Indigenous specific issues in allyship
This program will allow participants to examine their own preconceived ideas of allyship, to
discuss and share barriers to meaningful allyship and to refamiliarize themselves with issues in
Indigenous communities in order to begin a journey to true allyship.
Self-Indentification Training
We know that we are not always identifying Indigenous people as they enter into any service
provision and as such a) they are not always able to access culturally appropriate programming
and b) we are not collecting the valuable data needed to address concerns with equitable
access to programming across the system.
This program is designed to help anyone doing intake become comfortable asking if
clients/patients wish to self-identify. The course will include discussion on why we ask, who we
should ask, what we should ask and what to do if challenged.
Land Acknowledgement Training
More and more organizations and individuals are talking about land acknowledgements as part
of openings for meetings, conferences, even live entertainment events. There is a lot of
confusion about the purpose of a land acknowledgement, and often nowhere to seek
information, or ask questions. This workshop will give participants a solid overview of the land
acknowledgement process: what they are, what their purpose is, what to include in them, and
when to do them. Participants will walk away with a better understanding, and the tools
needed to create their own land acknowledgement.
Care for the Care-Giver Workshop
We ask far too much of our caregivers, especially in Indigenous communities and people
working in or with Indigenous communities. Our jobs are hazardous to our own well being, and
the only defence we have is knowledge of the risks, and of ways we can protect and care for
ourselves. In this workshop, participants will examine the things they face that can eat away at
their own health, like vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and lateral violence. Then they will
be led through a series of activities geared towards recognizing what can feed their wellbeing
and their own health. After all, we need people doing this hard work! At the end, participants
will be encouraged to make a step towards self-care, based on the Medicine Wheel, by
promising to feel their own wellness every day.
Developing New Models for Working Together
Usually, our workspaces are dictated by a hierarchical organization structure that seems to rate
people’s worth on how high they sit. In the past, Indigenous communities didn’t include
hierarchy in any of their systems, but rather employed a view that everyone was bringing
something important to each endeavour.
In this workshop, we examine how the Clan System worked as a method of government for
thousands of years without any hierarchy at all. Participants will be led through exercises that
identify roles by their gifts, not by perceptions of power and authority. At the end of the
workshop, everyone in the organization will be able to see themselves as an equally valuable
member of a team.
White Fragility Training
In 2011, Robin DiAngelo coined the term “white fragility” to describe the disbelieving
defensiveness that white people exhibit when their ideas about race and racism are challenged,
particularly when they feel implicated in white supremacy. This workshop looks at how that
might limit the ability of people in care-giving positions to adapt to an “equity-based” approach
that adjusts to the needs of everyone, even members of marginalized communities. In this
workshop, participants will be led though an examination of what White Fragility is and what it
isn’t, how they can recognize it in themselves, and how we can all overcome our individual
fragilities to create a more equitable and diverse society.