TFN’s Health and Social Services Department is pleased to present a new First Nations Empowerment Program for Members, run by Gitanmaax Member Warren McDougall of Carrier Nation.
The program is designed to help people understand how the use of drugs and alcohol, crime and violence, community conflict, poverty, and hopelessness that plague our communities are a natural result of our history as a colonized people.
It also helps people understand that healing is possible and explores some ways that this can happen. In the program, people share a meal and talk about their experiences of what works and what doesn’t, with the goal of finding ways to heal. In the aftercare, people work to build new attitudes, skills, and strategies that will help them get more of what they want in life and less of the things they don’t want.
Warren McDougall is Program Coordinator for Sage Counselling and Addiction Services in Burnaby, where he is also a counsellor and facilitator, specializing in addiction, grief, and trauma. Sage has built a reputation over the past 27 years for providing intensive, community-based treatment programs for adults in recovery. Based on this history, the First Nations Health Authority asked Sage to develop a program for Aboriginal communities and asked Warren to deliver the programs and provide the aftercare support.
Warren will be in the community in the coming weeks to meet people and see who may be interested in joining the program. You can also contact Health and Social Services for more information.