On today’s episode, we’re going to explore life promotion & suicide prevention.

Indigenous people in Canada die by suicide at a rate three times the national rate. The rate of suicide among young First Nations is six times higher.

Thunderbird has been working with youth to develop a response to suicide, mental wellness and substance use in Indigenous communities. The result is a new resource, called: Strengthening our Connections to Promote Life: A Life Promotion Toolkit by Indigenous Youth. 

And we’re thrilled to welcome two of the young people who played a key role in putting the toolkit together.

Gabrielle Jubinville, is a Hope Ambassador with We Matter, a former US Division One college basketball player and a proud member of the EEE-knock Cree Nation, in Treaty Six territory in Alberta. We reached her in Brandon, Manitoba… where she workes for Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Westman and works at the Women’s Resource Centre.

And Connor Lafortune is an Anishinaabek writer, poet, and activist from the Dokis First Nation on Robinson Huron Treaty territory of 1850. He just finished his third year at Nipissing University with a Double Honours Major in Indigenous Studies and Gender Equality and Social Justice with a minor in Legal Studies.

You can see the Life Promotion Toolkit on our website, thunderbirdPF.org

You can also order hard copies there.

If you’d like to request a presentation by a member of Thunderbird’s Youth Action Group for Life Promotion, email us at info@thunderbirdPF.org

There’s also more culturally-safe information to support Life Promotion on one of our websites - wisepractices.ca

You can find us on social media by searching for ThunderbirdPF

Our theme music is by Courtney Riley, Chippewas of the Thames First Nation.

Mino Bimaadiziwin is produced by David McGuffin of Explore Podcast Productions and the Thunderbird Partnership Foundation.