Grant: Team Grant: HIV/AIDS and STBBI Community-Based Research - Supplementary Funding

This proposed project will support Indigenous youth across the Prairies in reclaiming sexual wellness and reducing HIV/HCV/STBBIs through arts-, land-, and culture-based programming. Guided by Two-Eyed Seeing and Indigenous-led implementation science, it will blend Indigenous and Western knowledge to explore identity, gender, and sexuality. Communities will co-lead program design, evaluation, and data governance, using culturally defined wellness indicators and implementation outcomes. Objectives include identifying gaps in sexual wellbeing knowledge, co-creating and evaluating tailored programming, and building community while simultaneously establishing a community-led data repository. In Phases I & II, the project team and community partners will gather spring and summer medicines, including stories, teachings, and insights from Indigenous youth, Elders, and leaders in order to identify gaps in sexual health and wellness. Using sharing circles and interviews rooted in ceremony and protocol, they will co-create new and adapt existing resources (atohtitam sexual health and wellness learning bundles and DRUM & SASH resources). These resources, shaped by lived experience and local knowledge, will support healing, identity, and connection through arts- and land-based practices, reflecting each community's unique values, language, and priorities. Phases III & IV will focus on preparing and sharing these bundles through land-based, arts-based, and culturally rooted delivery. Communities will reject colonial models in favor of relational, seasonal, and ceremonial approaches. Evaluation tools will be co-created using Indigenous knowledge systems and Two-Eyed Seeing, blending cultural indicators with quantitative measures. Youth and community leaders will guide workshops or culture camps, ensuring resources are meaningful, adaptable, and rooted in local teachings.