INTERGENERATIONAL TRAUMA

Lack of healing from intergenerational trauma also results in the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in social support systems.

50% of our local homeless population is Indigenous.

50% – 75% of children in care are Indigenous.

30% of prison populations nationally are Indigenous, with that number being as high as 50% in many women’s prisons.

500% higher school dropout rates for Indigenous youth.

We also know that children in care often transition from one system to another system, where they often represent 50% – 80% of those populations including the various shelter systems.

Canada currently has created a system of life-long support for our most vulnerable populations which means it is very difficult to get out of these social support systems and impossible without healing and training for employment.

The maintenance of these systems cost Canadian taxpayers 10s of billions of dollars annually. If we can provide the tools to help Indigenous people heal and provide opportunities for employment specific training, Canada could save 10s of billions of dollars annually.

In 1971, the worker to retiree ratio was 7:1, In 20 years, the ratio will be 2:1 due to the mass retirement of the baby boomer population. This will impact services, pensions, healthcare, and long-term care. Providing services to this valuable population of retirees who are also our older family members, will cost 10s of billions of new dollars per year.

Overrepresentation in Indigenous Communities

At Anishnabeg Outreach (AO) the priority population we serve is urban First Nation, Inuit, and Metis (FNIM). Last year AO supported over 14,000 local FNIM people with our programming. There are 50,000 FNIM people in the Waterloo Region, with complex and diverse needs.

The FNIM community in the Waterloo Region makes up roughly 10% of the population. With, FNIM people representing 50% of the local homeless population, approximately 50% of the children in care across the country, and over 30% of the prison population nationally. FNIM youth have a 500% higher school dropout rate. In addition to being overrepresented within these systems, we also see other outcomes of what a lack of healing has caused, including higher rates of substance abuse, addiction, and mental health conditions.

As a result, AO takes a healing-centered approach to all program delivery ensuring that we are meeting the specific and diverse needs of our clients at all levels. AO works hard to assist FNIM people to overcome the barriers that exist because of colonial systems through offering a sustainable and comprehensive suite of centralized wrap-around healing based services for urban FNIM people.

At AO we work with large businesses and organizations to break down barriers that exist within their systems to ensure Indigenous peoples have equitable access to employment. AO does this through reconciliation training.

Our reconciliation training that we provide is one of the many programs and services AO offers to combat the high numbers of Indigenous representation in the statistics above.