Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Background/Objectives Well-being in Indigenous communities is often assessed through  socioeconomic approaches. Moreover, assessment of community well-being tends to be done through  assessments focused on individuals. Considering Indigenous people perceive well-being wholistically, this research aims to identify wholistic concepts of well-being from the perspectives of Indigenous community members. These concepts will inform the development of indicators, which will be used to assess the state and evolution of Indigenous community well-being. Methods A joint Community Mobilization Training (CMT) was delivered in two Indigenous communities in Quebec: one is urban, with diverse indigenous Peoples, the other one is a rural Atikamekw First Nation reserve. Participants are members of the communities, who work in a health- or well-being-related field. As part of the training, attendees (n=15 to 20) participate in talking circles to elaborate on indicators of well-being in their community. Four additional discussion groups will be held with other members of the community who self-identify as Indigenous. Participants will be youth, aged 15 to 25 (n=10 to 16) and self-identified elders (n=10 to 16) selected with a community research assistant. Talking circles will be recorded and transcribed verbatim, and analyzed through inductive coding to identify recurrent indicators and determinants of well-being. Talking circles are a group discussion method grounded in the communities' culture, and  give everyone the same opportunity to share experiences and thoughts when they have a talking stick which is passed around the circle. Participating youths will have the opportunity to experience research and gain skills as co-researchers, i.e. facilitating talking circles with elders, translating between Atikamekw and French, analyzing and interpreting the results, and disseminating the results both in and outside their community. Keywords Well-being, Indigenous, participative research