Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

Background: Despite comprising only 4.5% of Canadian children, First Nations children account for nearly half of children in foster care. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was formed as a means of reckoning with the devastating legacy left by the residential school system and calls for reports on First Nations children in care. Responding to this Call to Action, we have completed the largest analysis to-date of educational, poverty and health outcomes for First Nations children and youth living in foster homes across Canada. Objectives and Activities: Next steps are for our team to share these data in a meaningful, safe, and useful way to First Nations agencies across Canada. Through a series of virtual sharing meetings we will provide data summaries to First Nations agencies. These First Nations agencies will be identified through a referral system leveraging our existing collaborations. By disseminating these data, we will uphold OCAP® (Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession) principles. Working from a two-eyed seeing approach and honouring the First Nation's Four R's of Respect, Relevance, Reciprocity, and Responsibility, we will in addition hold a learning circle at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation with representatives of First Nations agencies to identify the membership of an Advisory Council. Significance: Shedding light on the educational and health-related outcomes of First Nations Children in foster homes is a critical first step to reducing health inequalities for these children. However, such research will have little impact without First Nations interpretation of health and wellness, and contextualization of the results within the ongoing legacy of colonialism. This project's purpose is to share this information with First Nations agencies so they can lead their own research agendas, and to create an Advisory Council so that future First Nations-driven research will be relevant and have meaningful impact.