Regathering the Strengths of First Nations Women to Promote Youth Wellness

The goal of the proposed research is to facilitate the co-creation of a social safety net for First Nations youth, enabling them to cope with the challenges they face and promoting wellness. In many First Nations communities, the disempowerment of girls and women as a result of colonialist patriarchal policies has been profound, placing them at risk physically, socially, and emotionally. It has also resulted in the devaluation of the inter and intragenerational relational behaviors that colonialism deemed feminine, and thus inferior. In the proposed research, we will work together with female and two-spirit First Nations youth to established culturally-grounded and gender affirming peer mentoring programs for youth across the gender spectrum, as such supports are expected to be integral to youths' sense of belonging and positive mental health. In addition, together with First Nations communities, we are proposing to enable youth to create digital stories of strong female role models, thereby providing inspiration and fostering respect. Finally, we will encourage First Nations youth who are about to become mothers to bring together their trusted social supports to co-create their collective story of strength to be gifted to her newborn later in life, and in so doing, consolidate the supports surrounding young mothers (and infants), and affirming these mothers' value and purpose. Ongoing multi-method (qualitative, quantitative, and behavioral) measurements will form the basis of formative and outcome evaluations of the program effects on youth wellness. Qualitative analyses of the program outputs (co-created training curriculum, stories) will be conducted to understand the processes by which empowered gender and cultural identities are expressed and consolidated. It is expected that by affirming the strengths of First Nations women, gender relations, social support behaviors, coping skills, and the health and wellness of First Nations youth will be enhanced.