First Nations Health Consortium (FNHC) was formed to help people apply for Jordan’s Principle and has found other sources of funding to expand its services to First Nation people in Alberta.
In 2017, FNHC was founded by Bigstone Health Commission, Kee Tas Kee Now Tribal Council (KTC), Maskwacis Health Services, and Siksika Health, to bid to be the organization to help people in Alberta apply for Jordan’s Principle.
The First Nations are from each of the three treaty areas in Alberta. Bigstone and KTC are in the region covered by the Lakeside Leader. Maswacis is south of Edmonton. Siksika is south of Strathmore. Each of these First Nations has a seat on the board, but the services are open to all First Nations members living in Alberta.
Supports across Alberta
FNHC has offices in Alberta from Lethbridge to High Level, with the head office in Edmonton. In Northern Alberta, the offices are in Wabasca, High Prairie, Grande Prairie, St. Paul, Lac La Biche, and High Level. Staff will drive to other communities to help people.
“Every dollar we get from Jordan’s Principle is spent on Jordan’s Principle,” says Barry Phillips is FNHC’s CEO.
Through its work with Jordan’s Principle, FNHC has identified other support gaps in communities which aren’t eligible for Jordan’s Principle funding, says Lorraine Muskwa, FNHC’s chief operating officer.
FNHC has worked to find other sources of funding for programs to address these issues. The supports include help applying for treaty status, supports for youth transitioning into adulthood, elder supports and education, and community programs. The community programs include sports and recreation, early childhood reading, and youth events, training and engagement.
“It’s not just doing the applications,” says Muskwa. “It’s more than that.”
FNHC is focused on social determinants of health, says Phillips.
The Government of Canada’s website says, “Determinants of health are the broad range of personal, social, economic and environmental factors that determine individual and population health. The main determinants of health include: income and social status, employment and working conditions education and literacy, childhood experiences, physical environments, social supports and coping skills, healthy behaviours, access to health services, biology and genetic endowment, gender, culture, and race/racism.”
“It takes all of those things to really make a difference in the status of health,” says Phillips. “It takes a long time to change a status of health,” with studies showing about 20 years to make a significant change.
“If we don’t address the social determinants of health,” adds Phillips, “then were not going to see any change.”
Jordan’s Principle
Jordan’s Principle and Inuit Child First Initiative exist to fill gaps in health, education, and other services for First Nations and Inuit people under the age of majority in Canada. In Alberta, this is zero to 17-year-olds.
First Nations and Inuit people in Alberta can apply for the applicable funding through Indigenous Services Canada Jordan’s Principle offices or through FNHC. Both provide free support to fill out the free application. FNHC can also connect First Nations and Inuit people in Alberta with supports available to all Albertans which they might not know about.
FNHC does not make decisions about approvals. Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) makes the decisions about funding.
Bigstone Chief Andy Alook says that FNHC can help with the backlog in Jordan’s Principle applications. At one point, this was 8,000 applications across Canada and it is growing.
One of the benefits of applying through FNHC is that it allows the member First Nations to track the number of applications in Alberta.
FNHC has workers from different disciplines, from sociology to education to nursing, says Phillips. This team works together to help people applying for Jordan’s Principle identify appropriate eligible supports that could help the youth.
FNHC helps with appeals
To start the application process, go to an FNHC office, fill out an online intake form on abfnhc.com, or call 1-844-588-8748. The intake form isn’t the full application.
The form says, “Jordan’s Principle responds to unmet needs of children and supporting documentation is required for the application process. There is also a waiting period for a decision on the application from Indigenous Services Canada – Jordan’s Principle.”
Treaty status
Jordan’s Principle services are for First Nation and Inuit, not Métis. The person applying has to prove the youth or at least one of their parents has treaty status or is an Indigenous youth who ordinarily lives on reserve.
“Registration has become a big issue with the whole Jordan’s Principle initiative house,” says Phillips.
Through working on Jordan’s Principle applications, he adds, FNHC realized there were many children who were eligible for treaty status who hadn’t registered. In response, FNHC applied for separate funding to be able to help people apply for status.
Since FNHC received funding to help people apply for treaty status, on one visit to a northern community, FNHC helped 70 individuals get registered.
To apply for treaty status, people have to prove their ancestors had status.
“In some cases that’s not easy,” says Phillips.
FNHC can help people of any age apply for treaty status, but only youth are eligible for Jordan’s Principle.
Children and youth
“Because we get support from other areas our hands aren’t tied,” says Phillips. “We’re just out there to make a difference.”
FNHC has a teepee summit each year in Edmonton for First Nations and Inuit youth. This year it is July 29 to 31. It is geared toward 12 to 17 year olds, but younger kids are welcome to attend with their siblings.
The goal of the summit is “to try and open up opportunities …,” says Phillips. “It’s about building healthy ideas.”
On the FNHC website, people can sign up First Nation, Métis, and Inuit children under five years old to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. The child receives a free book in the mail each month until their fifth birthday.
The books provide parents and young children a chance to bond, says Phillips.
FNHC has ball hockey and floor curling programs.
FNHC has funding to do a few four-day Bear’s Den entrepreneurship events. The first was in Lubicon Lake Band in northern Alberta.
“They had a great time,” says Phillips, “and it opens up their eyes and their minds to a brighter future.”
There are Indigenous kids who think they have no future, says Phillips. Some mothers saw their children change throughout the event. They went from being quiet to standing up and speaking in the group.
Another program was a girls’ golf academy.
One father told Phillips the academy gave him an activity to do with his daughter.
FNHC also has worker who can come into schools and Indigenous communities to teach youth about cyber security.
“There’s a lot of danger for these kids on the internet,” says Phillips.
Elder supports
Another area of need identified by FNHC but not covered by Jordan’s Principle is support for grandparents and great-grandparents raising children.
“There’s an awful lot of elders responsible for children …,” said Phillips. “We can’t forget the caregivers. You have to look after the family and in a lot of cases that family is kookum (grandmother).”
FNHC has helped grandparents and great-grandparents raising children to apply for respite care, modifications to their homes, long-term benefits, etc.
The elders support can also be connected with the community programs.
In some communities, the floor curling program is in the seniors’ lodge, says Phillips. This encourages children to visit their grandparents.
“It’s good for both sides,” says Phillips.
