Grant: Team Grant: Indigenous Gender and Wellness Team Grant

Responding to the need for Two-Spirit youth-led research, this project will take a participatory action community-driven approach that will explore and support Indigenous 2SLGBTQQIA+ youth voiced expressions of health and wellness with an intergenerational network of supportive mentors, aunties, and uncles. Through exploration of peer support training and models of healing, such as rites of passage and community-based participatory research methodologies, this research will host a series of 'Closer to the Fire' Gatherings to: 1) Investigate peer support wise practice models of healing, such as rites of passage, and to learn about notions of gender and wellness grounded in culture by and for 2SLGBTTIQA+ Indigenous youth; 2) Evaluate models of Indigenous 2SLGBTTIQA+ youth leadership and peer support models, while reintroducing Indigenous knowledge and understandings of gender identity and expression; 3) Create a bundle of high quality, accessible resources by and for Two-Spirit, trans & queer Indigenous young people, and their families about cultural understandings of gender and sexuality; 4) Mobilize ongoing knowledge development and creation through 2SLGBTTIQA+ youth-led digital mediums, social media engagement; and 5) Share project results and the resource bundle with families and communities to increase understanding, belonging, and safety for 2SLGBTTIQA+ youth.