Gathering Our Medicine
PROGRAMS
Become a Gathering Our Medicine Facilitator
Gathering Our Medicine is a community centred program intended to be facilitated within the community, by those living and working within the community. Our facilitator training is an immersive, experiential process intended to equip facilitators with the insight, resources, and knowledge necessary to lead circles that are safe, culturally relevant, and transformative.
Training is a combination of self-paced online work and live facilitated sessions. Facilitator trainees are given access to a series of pre-recorded sessions in order to familiarize them with the approach and content, and are then required to attend live cohort sessions to discuss practical implications for facilitating community circles.
Regional Training
We offer 3 Regional Facilitator Trainings per year. Please contact us if you are interested in becoming a facilitator, and/or if your organization or community is interested in co-hosting this training in your region.
Expression of Interest
Once facilitators have completed the initial training, we ask that they submit an Expression of Interest indicating a commitment to running a group as well as having the support to do so. We ask facilitators consider the following before submitting an Expression of Interest.
Facilitators need to be able to make a commitment to:
- A total of 80 hours of training including weekly engagement with a Gathering Our Medicine mentor over the 9 weeks of the first facilitated group
- Reflectively review 9 online recordings – 90 minutes per recording and post weekly reflections
- Attend weekly scheduled live sessions to discuss and deepen learning– 2 hours per session
- A relationship and commitment from a local Elder and Knowledge Keeper who is able to co-facilitate and provide program support for the entirety of the program
Facilitators are responsible for:
- Promotion & registration – poster provided
- Food and logistics and/or technology to facilitate online sessions
- Weekly preparation: Online – 1. 5 hours facilitation; 1 hour prepping slides with elder/knowledge keeper; 1 hour of prep/debrief with supervisor
- In person – 3 hours facilitation
- Taking attendance
- Recording sessions if in person for supervision purposes
- Support from management
- Formative and summative Evaluations
- Participant and facilitator evaluations
- Working with an elder / knowledge keeper – provision of honorarium
Mentor & Trainee
Gathering Our Medicine mentors work closely with trainees during preparation and facilitation of their first community kinship circle. The mentor attends weekly planning meetings and supervises the facilitation of the first group in order to give feedback, encouragement and support to our facilitators.
Our facilitators play a sacred role in upholding the spirit of the program and we are committed to ensuring they have the support to do so. We want our facilitators to feel fulfilled in regard to leading kinship circles and within the larger community of Gathering Our Medicine.
Community of Practice Training
Gathering Our Medicine offers a fresh approach to working in culturally safe and relevant ways with Indigenous communities and families. We offer 3-day Community of Practice Training (in person or online) for organizations who would like their staff trained in the Gathering Our Medicine Approach. If you are considering hosing a Community of Practice Training for your staff, please note expectations below.
We ask that you be responsible for the following:
- Participant registration (max. 25 participants for in person training)
- Management support – ensuring you have the support of your manager to host this training
- Coordinating online training – technological requirements, sending out invitations
- Letting us know who the participants will be and what the expected outcomes are
- Arranging for a knowledge keeper/elder to support the training
- To maximize the capacity by extending invitation if you do not have enough participants
Bi-Monthly Virtual Circles
We hold a bi-monthly circle in which our facilitators, knowledge keepers, and elders come together to support one another, learn from one another, and to experience a sense of community together.
There are often themes or topics that we focus on during our time together and often our elders provide rich teachings and stories that enrich our personal and professional lives and connections with in each other in the work we do in community.
Kinship Circles
Maples Adolescent Treatment Centre hosts three kinship circles throughout the year for those who are unable to attend a community hosted program.
Get in touch to learn more !
Have questions? We invite you to send us a message to learn more about Gathering our Medicine: