the recovery nest

We would use the Elevate Prize funding in three ways:

1. The major initiatives we're focused on right now are: ctsítcwten' recovery fund - provides survivors in need with grants of $50,000 over the course of a year along with resource and emotional support; sespúl'k'w healing circles - support circles for victims/survivors that focus on healing through building relationships and community; our gift shop - we sell merchandise that's comforting and healing (eg. custom Indigenous blankets), and with every purchase, buyers to send care packages to survivors needing support, which include custom encouragement letters. We need to fund merchandise, gifts for group participants, and we're hoping to award our first grant next year.

2. We need a space for staff and clients to gather. We will put a portion of funding towards buying an official space that will serve as our office and gathering place. We need a place that's warm and safe, where both clients and staff feel at home.

3. Growing our team and funding salaries. We're committed to employing survivors and paying a living wage (no staff member will make less than $50,000 per year) while asking no more than 4 days of work per week.

I experienced severe childhood abuse and torture at the hands of my parents, and was later held captive by my father from the ages of 18 until I managed to escape at 26.

Afterwards I spent a number of years bouncing around different places, experiencing homelessness and financial instability, and just trying to survive because I had no support.

It made healing and recovering almost impossible because I didn't have a safe place to do that, and I could pay for therapy or any of the things that really brought me joy and could bring comfort to me.

After experiencing such trauma and systemic abuse, survivors should just be able to rest and recover - but usually their lives are much harder because of the abuse. It doesn't seem fair.

I want every survivor to have a safe space to call home and a loving community of support around them so they have the foundation they need to truly heal and move on.

We're responding to the global problem of child abuse, domestic violence, and sexual violence. In Canada these issues affect 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men. Globally, they affect 1 in 3 women. For Indigenous women and Two-Spirit folks, that number is more than half. All of these statistics are likely underestimates due to the silence and shame around these issues.

While we of course hope for justice and accountability for those who commit these violent acts, or focus is on helping victims and survivors heal and lead wonderful lives after their experiences. Abuse can cause long lasting health problems that affect job prospects, relationships, etc. It also tends to happen within communities, so when a victim breaks free, they're left with fractured relationships, or left completely isolated, due to no fault of their own.

We're committed to being that community and safety net that they need. We provide grants so survivors' basic needs are met, and instead of worrying about paying bills, they can focus on goals and dreams that may have been stolen from them. We also focus on healing through relationship, building or restoring communities so survivors have a circle of love around them.

There are few resources for survivors in general. However, existing organizations tend to focus on: justice, therapeutic support, or transitional housing. The odd organization provides small grants (eg. less than $1000).

Our approach is innovative because we care for survivors once they're already safe. We believe in moving beyond safety - that every victim/survivor deserves to have a life full of love, friendship, and making their dreams come true. We create the foundation for them to live a beautiful lives.

Providing large grants of $50,000 is particularly disruptive, and perhaps a bit controversial. We've chosen this amount because, in general, a person can live comfortably off that in a year. We want recipients to never have to worry about meeting their basic needs. We want them to be able to make choices about school, work, therapy, etc. based solely on what helps them heal and makes them excited about life. Instead of getting funding to as many survivors as possible, we believe in centering survivors of the most severe cases of systemic abuse for this grant, because they're the ones who are often left unable to work, and can be poorly served by therapy and other mainstream supports.

We are fundraising for our very first ctsítcwten' grant, which we hope to award next year. The grant is paid out biweekly over the course of one year, and the survivor who receives it also gets regular meetings with a caseworker who provides emotional support and helps coordinate resources for the survivor (eg. work, school, housing resources). This fund will prevent survivors from becoming homeless, allow them to go to school, enable them to choose work based on their interests and talents rather than survival, give them freedom to start a business, and much more.

We are also building our peer support healing circles. Western society is very individualistic, but as Indigenous Peoples, we know that healing needs to happen relationally. Also since so many survivors are displaced and disowned by their families because of their experiences, these groups are helping to fill the need for those community bonds.

Indigenous survivors are at the heart of everything we do. Indigenous People's globally are still facing daily acts of genocide. By centring Indigenous survivors and creating spaces to heal multi-layered and multi-generational trauma, we are making a small contribution to ending the oppression our communities face.