Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Years of socio-historical/colonial policy and assimilation have bolstered transgenerational stress in Indigenous populations living in Canada. This stress, and the suboptimal lifestyles in which it manifests, widens health disparities in these populations. As such, type 2 diabetes has a prevalence rate three to five times greater in Indigenous peoples in Canada. The Kahnawake Schools Diabetes Prevention project's (KDSPP) Community Mobilization Training (CMT) engages Indigenous community stakeholders to implement diabetes prevention strategies rooted in enhancing physical activity, healthy eating, and positive attitudes. Through the five-day CMT, the community representatives learn to tailor a prevention strategy to the context and culture of their local community. My research is investigating the integration of an e-health component to compliment the CMT and provide trainees with ongoing engagement and support. E-health is described as the delivery or augmentation of health (promotion) services through use of information communication technologies. One key strategy planned is the used of webinars (virtual seminars), with topics based on community needs. Other strategies include social media platforms, web-meetings, and chatrooms. These strategies constitute a knowledge translation framework consistent with Indigenous knowledge and communication systems (i.e. storytelling). Our experiences will contribute to the fields of e-health strategies and Indigenous health, providing what we learned from the process and evaluation of these strategies in an Indigenous community-based context. Most importantly, we will be improving support for Indigenous trainees and enhancing potential for program sustainability.