The project compares 2 distinct urban Indigenous service settings within Foundry network: Vancouver-Granville, serving a dense inner-city population with overlapping structural inequities, and Abbotsford, serving a rapidly growing Fraser Health community. This comparative design illuminates heterogeneity in urban Indigenous public health experiences, including local strengths, barriers, and culturally grounded wellness pathways shared by peer support workers.
In September 2026, two in-person half-day gatherings will occur at Abbotsford and Vancouver-Granville. Guided by Indigenous research methodologies, activities will be co-adapted with partners to align with existing relationships, cultural protocols, and site-specific priorities. Abbotsford will leverage established relationships with local Indigenous Elders and supports to guide activities. Vancouver-Granville, with more limited on-site Indigenous-specific infrastructure, will partner with facilitators from UBCs HELP Root Circle to embed culturally grounded practices and build capacity. This tailored approach recognizes uneven distribution of Indigenous support structures across urban settings and advances both honouring of strengths and targeted capacity-building.
Gatherings will incorporate sharing circles, storytelling, arts-based methods, medicine-making, and other activities co-identified with Elders, facilitators, and Peer Support Workers. Shared meals will honour feasting, hospitality, and relationality central to Indigenous practice. Participants will include Indigenous and allied youth Peer Support Workers (with protected time buy-out), Elders, Knowledge Holders, Foundry staff and leadership.
In October 2026, priorities identified across both sites will guide a knowledge-sharing session with leadership from Foundry Central Office, alongside teams from Abbotsford and Granville. Grounded in OCAP® principles, respect, reciprocity, relevance, responsibility, and Indigenous self-determination, anticipated outcomes include:
Indigenous-led research priority frameworks tailored to Vancouver-Granville, Abbotsford, and provincial Foundry contexts;
Nuanced understanding of how intersecting public health emergencies differentially impact Indigenous youth across urban settings;
Strengthened relational networks among peer support workers, Elders, facilitators, and leadership; and
Enhanced organizational capacity for culturally safe, trauma-informed, and relationally accountable public health responses.
Additional team members and participating organizations:
Participating organizations: Foundry Central Office; Foundry Vancouver-Granville; Foundry Abbotsford.
The project is undertaken in collaboration with Foundry Peer Support Workers, Elders, Knowledge Holders, and leadership and staff who have co-designed and guided engagement activities using Indigenous methodologies and culturally grounded approaches.