Don't Call Me Josephine

Community Conversations - explored cultural considerations for social media posts, in response to Native Elder guidance, when engaging Native-centered community to facilitate evaluation of safety circles conducted in 2022; and create a video report of findings; engaged Native youth in analysis of google forms and paper data to determine outcomes and inform safety programming directions; expanded our diverse team of women to include more Native and some male voice; developed video depicting interviews and animated summaries of what safety means to women and youth in the region, what threatens it, and what promotes it; shared culturally responsive and health conscious meals; engaged in cultural practices such as land acknowledgement and speaking in Ojibwe during team meetings and to facilitate interview recordings, in honor of the original people who still inhabit the region; emotions decks and respect cards were reviewed during interviews, to help evaluate experiences with the tool; parallel methods were used over zoom to review the google form versions; began developing modified tools, based on evaluation outcomes; for distribution final engagement event, in which community to view the video report, and completed a guided debrief.

Housing Foundations - market monitored ongoing for candidate properties that might be rented in a rent to possible home ownership program that would be made accessible to those who are disadvantaged; considered unique safety needs in Indian country that are poorly understood; drafted plans for next round of safety circles to explore unique Indian country needs; added food justice to lighting and ergonomics considerations, as relevant to mental health and ADA-related housing supports (e.g., food is medicine; remote employment that facilitates housing independence; etc); food and ADA-related housing supports are seen as essential to maintaining housing that is independent of social support systems (i.e., supporting independence, rather than ongoing reliance on systems that can inadvertently have adverse impact on mental health); exploration of employer-connected supports (e.g., coaching in employee-initiated, employer-engaged wellness checks) still paused pending further resources; further exploration of legal support available to community members developing self-advocacy to retain independent housing also paused pending further resources; considering shifting impact of pandemic on community needs; emotions decks and respect cards modified, in response community-informed evaluation of their use in safety circles; decks distributed on a limited basis during final community engagement event, as general health promotion and illness prevention tool that can also be used in treatment settings.