Keywords: positive, communitiy based, culturally rooted, goal oriented, strength based indicators, Manitoba First Nations, surveys
Objectives: Historically First Nations well-being has been measured against urban, Non-First Nations and Canadian standards. Such measures of progress counted First Nations as “deficit white people”. Manitoba First Nations (MFNs) developed their own community-based indicators of change through workshops in early 2000s.
Results: The MFN indicators of well-being are Positive, Goal Orientated, Community Based, and Culturally Rooted to create change based on strengths our people. In 2013-15, 95 First Nations data collectors were hired and trained to conduct 3858 interviews in 35 MFNs, achieving 83.3% of our targeted sample. This presentation will focus on statistical results from 751 Youth and 1706 Adult responses.
Approach: The regional component of the Regional Early Childhood Development, Education and Employment Survey (REEES) was used to test the MFN well-being measures such as Lands, Waters, Environment Identity and Language.
Conclusion: Testing indicators with survey data will help empower our First Nations to build on our strengths and move toward closing the gap between First Nations state of social-economic-cultural-health status as compared with the rest of Canada.