Ikwe Crisis Line: 1-800-362-3344 

Provincial Crisis Line: 1-877-977-0007

Ikwe Widdjiitiwin Logo

WARNING SIGNS:
Someone Who is Abusive Might…

Put the other person down
Show jealousy and controlling behaviour
Act like they own their partner and are superior to their partner
Cut their partner off from family and friends
Monitor their partner’s online activities, cell phone usage, or location

About

Our Mission & Vision

Mission Statement

To Support Indigenous women and their children end family violence, by offering shelter during crisis and nurturing hope, change and empowerment for tomorrow.

Vision Statement

Families finding peaceful solutions together.

Values & Beliefs

Culture

Our work supports the preservation and restoration of our Indigenous cultures. We offer opportunities to be served in our native languages. We respect who we are and feel at home in our culture. We are inclusive and affirming of all cultures.

 

Respect

We will be open-minded and mindful of others and their needs, beliefs, values and ideas. We will ask, not assume and listen to the answers. We embrace client-centered approaches and support the power of the family. We act with humility, dignity and fairness. We will find our voices and help others find theirs. We will speak out with the women and children and let ideas and concerns be heard. We will act with confidence and take on new challenges, even when it is very difficult. We will ask for help when we need it. We understand and honour the different roles we play.

Integrity

We will practice transparency and dependability and do what we say we will do. We will hold ourselves as individuals and as an organization to a high standard. We will seek understanding and knowledge and refrain from judgement and jumping to conclusions. We will use information thoughtfully and think about the long and short term effects of our actions. We will maintain the privacy of clients and the confidentiality of client files.

Compassion

We will work to strengthen each individual’s ability to hold themselves in esteem; to nurture and care for themselves, their families and others. We will continue to find our path as individuals so that we can be respectful helpers of others. We are mindful of professional boundaries. We will be perceptive of and sensitive to the effects of our work on ourselves, our colleagues and the women and children we serve. We will seek balance in our lives and our work. We will build our values into all of our work. We will create an environment that looks, feels and sounds safe, warm and welcoming.

Service Principles

The Service Principles guide all of our work and reflect the wisdom of our Elders. It is our belief that each of these four aspects of humanity is incomplete without the other. The goal of using the traditional four directions of empowerment is wholeness.

Physical

We strive to empower abused Indigenous women by providing and caring for her particular immediate physical need wherever possible including safety, shelter, accommodation, medical care, and emergency provision such as food and clothing for her and her children. She will be guided to establish on-going safety or personal protection plans for her specific situation.

Emotional

We strive to empower abused Indigenous women by helping her restore her positive emotional well-being. We offer caring, sharing, listening and understanding in an environment of unconditional support and advocacy. By linking her to her Indigenous community sisterhood, offering counselling, practical help, acceptance and a respectful attitude without prejudice or judgement, we foster emotional healing from the scars of abuse that can last a lifetime.

Mental

We strive to empower abused Indigenous women to her fullest cognitive capacity, enabling her to assess and plan an independent future with clarity, strength and hope. As advocates we shall nurture self-care as prerequisites to self-respect and a strong sense of self-worth. We provide encouragement, that she may assume courage and determination in working towards her own personal vision of empowerment. We endeavour to do this through education, referrals to other services and counselling. We believe that intellectual understanding of her victimization as as a wife and the effects of colonization as a native will provide personal and historical insight enabling her to shed low self-worth and the deleterious effects of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual abuse.

Spiritual

We strive to empower abused Indigenous women at their level of need, awareness and experience with the spiritual life power, strength and truth available from knowing the Great Spirit in a personal sacred manner; respecting inner illumination as dynamic over religious doctrines and dogmas. Spiritual counselling (Christian, Indgenous spirituality, etc.) and the use of the power of prayer as taught by our Elders during crisis, dysfunction, death, divorce, grief, trauma and illness is and always has been a Support base to our meaningful and vital existence. We recognize, encourage and promote the full use of the spiritual gifts attained when in unity and immersion with the Great Spirit. We Support our sisters in accessing all forms of empowerment, not disregarding the greatest avenues of empowerment obtained in union with the great Spirit. Through the avenues of charity and love, we strive to enable abused women to rediscover self-worth and self-esteem.