River East Transcona School Division

Published purpose

This 29 month project will support a feminist response and recovery from the current impacts of COVID-19, through systemic change. River East Transcona School Division will achieve this by conducting a community-based participatory action project. Through this project which seeks to address the graduation rate gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous girls, their mental health experiences in school, experiences of discrimination and lower rates of leadership. Female Indigenous students will be mentored by Indigenous community leaders to celebrate their Indigenous identity and will be trained by industry professionals in photography, Photoshop and InDesign to create a Photovoice project book. The students will be trained to collect and analyze data for the photovoice project and be supported to compile their data into a book. These books will identify changes needed and will provide recommendations that will be implemented in schools to allow Indigenous girls to feel safe in school and gain leadership skills as they confidently move to postsecondary education and the workforce. At the end of the project, the organization will have contributed to addressing systemic barriers by advancing inclusive policies and practices, increasing networks and collaboration to accelerate systemic change and addressing persistent harmful gender norms and attitudes to support women’s equality. This project will work with the University of Winnipeg Continuing Education Department, the Braiding Histories program, a community Elder and with other female Indigenous community leaders to empower Indigenous girls to succeed at school, increase confidence in themselves and embrace their indigeneity. A mixed methods approach will be utilized to assess project’s results.