Grant: Team Grant: Indigenous Component of Healthy Life Trajectories (I-HeLTI)

Healthy families are the building blocks of Indigenous communities, and are pivotal to the well-being and survival of communities. They are the cornerstone through which infants and children develop, learn, grow, and flourish, and the basis for well-being for people across the lifespan. Our team brings together partners from across research disciplines and Indigenous communities with the overall goal of supporting optimal health during preconception, pregnancy and postpartum for diverse Indigenous populations through community-led and community-specific strategies that promote the best possible healthy life for families and children. Specifically, we aim to incorporate the strengths and resilience embedded in Indigenous knowledge, wise practices, and cultural teachings into appropriately designed and effectively evaluated strategies that help Indigenous communities move in the direction of rebuilding family and community systems that have been systematically dismantled. The Indigenous Healthy Life Trajectory Initiative (I-HeLTI) is an important and timely opportunity for Indigenous communities to identify strategies that are considered critical for optimizing health, beginning in early life (i.e. in pre-conception, pregnancy, infancy, and early childhood). The three I-HeLTI Development Grant Teams funded in Alberta that were led by Maskwacîs Health Services, McMurray Métis Local 1935, and the Alberta First Nations Information Governance Centre (AFNIGC) have come together on this application.