Traditional Parenting Daghaałan (Our Family)

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Objective

The Indigenous Family & Cultural Wellness Initiative is a holistic, community-driven program designed to support Indigenous families with children aged 0 – 6 throughout the Yukon. By weaving ancestral knowledge together with practical family health education, the program creates a nurturing, safe, and collaborative space for intergenerational learning, wellness, and connection. To sign up, submit your information below and one of our coordinators will reach out to you as soon as possible

Core Objectives & Activities

The program is built around three foundational pillars designed to strengthen family units and cultural identity:

Cultural Preservation & Traditional Skills:

Regular handgames practices to build community, teamwork, and cultural pride.

Hands-on traditional workshops including medicine making, berry harvesting, traditional sewing, and regalia making.

Family Health & Early Childhood Support:

Comprehensive pre- and post-natal educational workshops tailored for expectant parents and new families.

Parenting circles and peer support networks to foster shared wisdom, mental wellness, and community resilience.

Nutritious, community-cooked lunches and meals provided at all sessions to ensure accessibility and togetherness.

Land-Based & Collaborative Learning:

A community garden project connecting participants to the land, sustainable food systems, and traditional harvesting practices.

Strategic partnerships with other local organizations across the Yukon Territory to maximize resources, share expertise, and expand community reach.

Goals

  • Strengthened cultural identity and transmission of traditional knowledge across generations.
  • Improved maternal, infant, and family health outcomes through early education and peer support.
  • Enhanced food security, community connectedness, and collaborative relationships among local Yukon organizations.

Elders

Elders are an essential component to our programming. As memory keepers of our traditions, stories, songs, dances and ceremonies. It is the Elders who provide us with the knowledge to carry on with our traditions of the past. As a result of this way of thinking, each workshop that we run is taught by an Elder from the community.

Traditional Parenting Daghaałan (Our Family) Coordinator: Temira Vance

Email: traditional.parenting@skookumjim.com

Traditional Parenting Daghaałan (Our Family) Coordinator: Ronda Vezina

Email: prenatal@skookumjim.com

Phone: 867-633-7680

Traditional Parenting Daghaałan (Our Family) Intake Form:

This information is helpful in identifying what resources may be available to you and your newborn
We cannot guarantee the supports you request here will become available though SJFC but if we know of it upon registration, we may be able to help find, advocate for or support in the future

Confidentiality Agreement

Every person in our program owns any or all information about themselves.
To make sure that everyone feels comfortable about sharing their personal stories and experiences to other participants we ask that you share responsibility for maintaining the confidentiality of our program.
We can all do this by making sure that what is said in the center stays in the center.
..No written record will be kept about anyone’s personal information unless you ask us to do so, except for registration information and dietician services.

..Staff members, partners and volunteers of the Skookum Jim Friendship Centre agrees to keep all personal information only as necessary within the circle of confidentiality.

..If you wish, you can give permission for us to discuss with others what you have shared with us. You can say exactly who else gets to know what you have shared.

..If the information you share is about child abuse or harm to others or yourself we are required to contact appropriate assistance and we will invite you to contact them with us

..Any information shared among group participants must be kept strictly private. Do not discuss other participants’ information outside of the group.

Health and Safety Agreement

SJFC aims to create a healthy space for all our participants. We understand that infants are more likely to get sick as their immune systems are developing, which makes them more vulnerable and at risk for catching illnesses and diseases than adults. Pregnant women also have reduced immunity and are more susceptible to illness.
In agreeing to participate in our CAPCHP, you are agreeing to share responsibility for keeping all the other adult and infant participants healthy and safe. Proper handwashing is the best way to reduce the spread of illness or infection. Please let a CAPCHP staff person know if you would like to learn more about this.
To protect your child from being exposed to a potentially dangerous disease, CAPCHP encourages all participants to vaccinate their children according to the Yukon Immunization Schedule. We also encourage you to keep your own immunizations up to date. Please let a CAPCHP staff person know if you have questions or concerns about this.
We ask that you agree to and follow the guidelines for attendance if you and your children become ill.

If a program participant or anyone in their household, including an infant or sibling, is experiencing any of the following symptoms, the participant agrees to stay home and not come to the program.
Symptoms include cough, fever, sore throat, runny nose, vomiting, diarrhea, rash and/or other symptoms that arise.
Program participants are asked to stay home for 24 hours after their last symptoms.

Picture Release Form

By signing below, I, Named Applicant, authorize the organization identified above to photograph myself and my immediate family, and any work/art created while in attendance of any Skookum Jim Friendship Center “SJFC” workshops and or programs.

I consent and agree that the pictures & videos taken may be used by SJFC the for purposes in publications or other visual processes.

SJFC reserves the right to have the final selection of which pictures or videos will be used.

I understand that my involvement in this activity does not guarantee that my picture(s) or video(s) will be used.

I understand photos and videos will not be used to generate a profit or for any other commercial purposes. I have not been compensated nor will I seek compensation for the photos.

I release the organization from responsibility should a third party violate the terms of this release.