In an effort to safeguard the health and safety of clients, staff, volunteers and the general public, and in following current government safety guidelines, we have decided to postpone the community update event which was to be held on March 20th at Ka Ni Kanichihk. We are committed to updating you on this work and will be reaching out with more information and hopefully a new opportunity for connection in the next couple of weeks. We are sorry for any inconvenience.
An update to the Community
On behalf of the Boards of Directors of Ka Ni Kanichihk, Klinic, and SERC
Although we don’t have a formal announcement to make, we would like to provide the community with an update on the transition of the Teen Talk program.
As you will recall on January 31, 2020, Klinic and SERC released a message to the community about the transfer of the Teen Talk program from Klinic to SERC, and the decision to recommend that the support services delivered through Teen Talk in northern Indigenous communities be redirected to Indigenous partners working in this field. This decision was made for a few reasons; the contribution agreement had ended and so it was the best time to identify the potential for transferring the northern delivery to an Indigenous organization, and there was already an existing partnership in place with Ka Ni Kanichihk who have the mandate and experience.
Ka Ni Kanichihk was happy to discuss this partnership possibility with SERC to honour the spirit of the existing relationship between SERC and Ka Ni Kanichihk with the similar and successful transition of White Wolf Speaking to Ka Ni Kanichihk in 2017.
Discussions regarding a potential partnership with Ka Ni Kanichihk and SERC began in November 2019 to identify what a transition would look like and the logistics of this. These discussions resulted in an agreement to make a joint recommendation to government that included Klinic giving notice they would not re-enter a funding agreement and instead would recommend the funding and transition of Teen Talk North go to Ka Ni Kanichihk. This allowed the opportunity to attempt to right one of the criticisms of the White Wolf Speaking transition, where SERC was not able to remove themselves from the funding relationship.
We understand that community has been receiving messaging from many different places about this change and this has created lots of questions, which may leave people uncertain of who to contact for answers and what information is accurate. Given this, we thought it would be best to provide a brief update here and invite the community to a Pipe Ceremony and formal update meeting on where things are at with the transition of northern youth services that were offered by Teen Talk, the relationship between SERC, Klinic, and Ka Ni Kanichihk in a potential partnership, and our hopes for the future.
What we can tell the community right now is that the intention was to establish a transition plan to best honour the spirit of the important work that Teen Talk North has completed since its inception, while acknowledging that services would change under new and Indigenous leadership. Ka Ni Kanichihk has the capacity and a proven track record of successfully designing and delivering Indigenous specific curriculum. Coupled with Ka Ni Kanichihk’s history of delivering successful community- based programming, as well as well established relationships in rural and First Nation communities, moving these services to Ka Ni Kanichihk would be most beneficial to the communities it serves and in line with the principles of Truth and Reconciliation.
Please accept this Community Update invitation:
When: March 20, 2020
Time: 12:00 – 1:00
Where: Ka Ni Kanichihk large Classroom – 455 McDermot Ave
A light lunch will be provided to feast the update and the transition to move forward in a good way.
Miigwetch