Great Big Stories: Two-Eyed Seeing Grant Program

Great Big Stories: Two-Eyed Seeing Grant Program

Frayme wants to hear your story, exploring how two-eyed seeing approaches can be used within Integrated Youth Services (IYS) initiatives. We want to collaborate in partnership with Inuit, First Nations and Métis-led youth-serving organizations or groups, to help amplify and share their stories about two-eyed seeing.

Two-eyed seeing is an approach of inquiry and solutions in which people come together to view the world through different perspectives: an Indigenous lens with one eye, and a Western lens through the other[1]. GBS: Two-Eyed Seeing is Frayme’s third GBS grant, focusing on efforts and initiatives to address youth mental health and substance use (YMHSU) that include this Indigenous lens. Examples of two-eyed seeing approaches may include advancing or expanding on Indigenous ways of working, efforts to embrace decolonization of services, working in a good way, or working towards addressing issues of truth and reconciliation.  

At Frayme, we recognize the historical truths of oppression, marginalization, epistemicide, and genocide against Inuit, First Nations and Métis peoples.  This includes the horrendous abuses at residential schools and the ongoing suffering and intergenerational trauma this has caused. Frayme deeply values the voices of the survivors and aims to ensure meaningful decolonization among youth mental health and substance use organizations. For this reason, we have set out to amplify the stories of organizations working to decolonize services by embracing two-eyed seeing.

Integrated Youth Services (IYS) represent an approach that aims to build effective, youth-focused and integrated services for mental health, substance use and related issues. It is defined by a set of guiding principles for delivering community-based mental health and substance use services alongside additional needed youth supports. IYS is transforming youth mental health and substance use services in communities across Canada and helping to ensure that youth have equitable access to the range of services they need when they need them. However, it is still unclear how IYS can best serve and work with Indigenous youth and caregivers. For the purposes of this grant, we are interested in exploring how two-eyed seeing approaches are used, or can be used, to help inform IYS initiatives. Two-eyed seeing approaches may include (a) advancing Inuit, First Nations and Métis ways of working to support youth, (b) efforts to embrace decolonization of services, (c) working in a good way, or (d) working to address issues of truth and reconciliation.

For the purposes of this grant, we are interested in Indigenous-led youth service programs or wholistic youth efforts (including IYS- affiliated hubs) and determining how they can best work in partnership with IYS or Mental Wellness Teams (MWT). MWTs are a “community-based and multi-disciplinary team approach to providing mental health and addictions services in First Nations and Inuit communities that blends or enhances traditional, cultural and mainstream approaches. The MWT approach is designed to complement and support efforts that are currently in place in First Nations on-reserve and Inuit communities.”[2].

Frayme will support grants of up to $20,000 each.  

Goals: The goals of the grant include supporting Inuit, First Nations and Métis-led youth-serving organizations or groups to:

  1. Share a story about their collaborative mental health or substance use policy, program or initiative that showcases two-eyed seeing. Methods to tell this story will be co-developed with organizations but can include written narratives, video, other arts-based methods (e.g., dance), or traditional methodologies of storytelling.    
  2. Co-create a learning and implementation guide that answers:
    • How has your program or initiative advanced or used two-eyed seeing?
    • What has worked well for your community, including the youth you serve? 
      • To what extent and why? Why is “what worked” important?
    • What has been challenging for your community and/or about the collaboration?
      • Why and what could have been done differently?
    • How did you develop, and how have you implemented your initiative or program?
      • What should others know so they can implement it? What are key takeaways or lessons learned? 
    • How do you plan to improve and evaluate your program or initiative over time?  

Who: These grants are for Inuit, First Nations and Métis-led youth-serving organizations or groups designing or implementing mental health or substance use services or initiatives that are working towards the decolonization of services through a two-eyed seeing approach. We are specifically interested in organizations that are working together, in a province or territory or in a pan-Canadian way, to serve youth through IYS hubs and/or wholistic services (such as MWT). Two-eyed seeing approaches may include advancing or expanding Indigenous ways of working to support youth, efforts to embrace decolonization of services, working in a good way, or working to address issues of truth and reconciliation.

How: Successful organizations and/or groups will be asked to work together with the Frayme team to share learnings about their youth policy, program, service and/or initiative to share learnings across the national YMHSU system.

When: These grants will be awarded through an independent review process that will run for a period of 2-3 weeks. Reviewers will hold diverse experiences and identities. Funding is projected to be awarded by December 2022.  Funding as a part of this grant program ends in January 2024.

Apply: Find the online application here. If you have any questions about the grant itself or need assistance filling out the application, please feel free to contact us at frayme.info@theroyal.ca.

 

[1] Jeffery, T., Kurtz, D. L., & Jones, C. A. (2021). Two-Eyed Seeing: Current approaches, and discussion of medical applications. Canada’s largest purpose-built public day-care surgery centre: A retrospective audit, 321.

[2] Mental wellness teams: key learnings from 8 projects. (2015). Health Canada, Santé Canada. Available at https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2015/sc-hc/H34-276-2014-eng.pdf

 

Eligibility

Organizations eligible for applying include Canadian Indigenous not-for-profit and charitable organizations. This can include Indigenous Youth Wellness organizations, Friendship Centers, or MWTs. If you’re uncertain about your eligibility, please email us for clarification at frayme.info@theroyal.ca.
 

Applications must include:

  • The story of your proposed project including key people involved (e.g., audience), goals, objectives and success plans.

  • Description of any youth, caregivers, service providers, or other stakeholder engagement

  • A plan for sharing out learnings and outcomes from the project

  • Timeline and budget for the project accounting for any deliverables

FAQ

What is the purpose of this grant stream? 

Through these knowledge mobilization grants, we are hoping to support YMHSU stakeholders (specifically Inuit, First Nations and Métis-led youth-serving organizations or groups and their affiliated Integrated Youth Services initiatives) to promote and share the implementation stories of two-eyed seeing policies, programs, services and/or initiatives that benefit youth and scale it to inform other service efforts. 

What can funding be used for? 

Funding is intended to help you tell and share your story. This may include compensating individuals via salaries, honoraria or stipends. Funding can also cover transportation expenses, meeting expenses (e.g. refreshments, food, childcare, etc.) and other expenses that make story-telling activities accessible to young people and other stakeholders. In addition, funding can be used to procure project materials and small equipment/technology that are directly related to the project. 

How can grantees mobilize their stories? 

Grantees can mobilize their stories through various mechanisms, including: 

  • Arts-based and traditional approaches to share processes and outcomes to enhance storytelling (e.g., storytelling through video, art, poetry, dance, etc.).  
  • Presentations, including posters and exhibitor booths, at conferences, webinars, and other relevant events 
  • Peer-reviewed and/or open-access publications 
  • Public information materials, such as reports, infographics, fact sheets, newsletters, etc. 
  • Policy papers or responsiveness summaries, detailing recommendations and incorporation of practice into future work 
  • Sponsoring community events, community programs, conferences, panels or other knowledge-sharing events 
  • Collecting practitioner or user perspectives (e.g., testimonials) 

  • Gathering information through formal/informal evaluation (qualitative/narrative feedback)

 

How will Frayme work alongside grantees to disseminate content?

Frayme will partner with grantees and/or provide access to resources and internal/external expertise. At the end of this grant, Frayme will help synthesize the findings from all grantees and identify common themes or promising approaches. It is our hope to both (a) help Grantees share their findings to a wider audience using Frayme’s network and (b) share overall promising practices across the network.

Can I get support to complete my grant?

Frayme recognizes that applicants may have varying degrees of experience completing grants and can be available to answer questions about the process of applying and what we would need to see included in sections of the application. Frayme can not provide advice on the content being included in any given application.

What are some examples of Two-Eyed seeing approaches in IYS and wholistic services?

For some examples of two-eyed seeing approaches in YMHSU, we encourage you to read the following publications:

  • Hutt-MacLeod, D., Rudderham, H., Sylliboy, A., Sylliboy-Denny, M., Liebenberg, L., Denny, J. F., Gould, M. R., Gould, N., Nossal, M., Iyer, S. N., Malla, A., & Boksa, P. (2019). Eskasoni First Nation's transformation of youth mental healthcare: Partnership between a Mi'kmaq community and the ACCESS Open Minds research project in implementing innovative practice and service evaluation. Early Intervention Psychiatry, 13, 42-47. https://doi.org/10.1111/eip.12817

  • Etter, M., Goose, A., Nossal, M., Chishom‐Nelson, J., Heck, C., Joober, R., Boksa, P., Lal, S., Shah, J.L., Andersson, N., Iyer, S.N., & Malla, A. (2019). Improving youth mental wellness services in an Indigenous context in Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories: ACCESS Open Minds Project. Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 13(Suppl. 1), 35-41. https://doi.org/10.1111/eip.12816

  • Mushquash, C. (2019). Invited Commentary: Community adaptations to ACCESS Open Minds—Lessons from Eskasoni and Ulukhaktok. Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 13, 78-80. https://doi.org/10.1111/eip.12825 

  • Marsh, T. N., Coholic, D., Cote-Meek, S., & Najavits, L. M. (2015). Blending Aboriginal and Western healing methods to treat intergenerational trauma with substance use disorder in Aboriginal peoples who live in Northeastern Ontario, Canada. Harm reduction journal, 12(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-015-0046-1 

  • Bartlett, C., Marshall, M., Marshall, A. (2012). Two-Eyed Seeing and other lessons learned within a co-learning journey of bringing together Indigenous and mainstream knowledges and ways of knowing. Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, 2, 331–340. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-012-0086-8

  • Boksa, Patricia, Daphne Hutt-MacLeod, Lacey Clair, Gregory Brass, Shirley Bighead, Aileen MacKinnon, Meghan Etter et al. "Demographic and Clinical Presentations of Youth using Enhanced Mental Health Services in Six Indigenous Communities from the ACCESS Open Minds Network." The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 67, no. 3 (2022): 179-191. https://doi.org/10.1177/07067437211055416 

 

How is intellectual property being recognized as part of this grant program?

As a national knowledge mobilization network, Frayme’s mission is to connect mental health, health and social services working with youth and young adults to accelerate the integration and implementation of youth care in Canada (to learn more about us, click here). Frayme seeks to address unequal power dynamics in the youth mental health and substance use system in Canada due to the legacy of colonialism in its approach, practices and collaborations, both formal and informal, as such, commits to the First Nations principles of OCAP in the protection of the Nation’s respective worldview, data, stories, information and governance.

The following types of intellectual property rights are protected and are not affected by Frayme’s Great Big Stories: Two-Eyed Seeing grant stream:

  • Background intellectual property: Any pre-existing intellectual property related to the grantee’s organization, and that organization’s trade secrets, trademarks, etc.
  • Indigenous knowledge and traditional cultural expressions: Knowledge articulated through (but not limited to) traditional Indigenous oral stories, artwork, handicrafts, dances, fabric, songs, or ceremonies.
  • Lived expert expressions: Stories and expressions arising directly and indirectly from the personal stories of young people, family members and caregivers recorded as part of the project.

We are here to support successful grantees and the achievement of their goals via their projects and to protect creators and knowledge keepers throughout this grant. With this in mind and to fulfill Frayme’s national mandate, knowledge mobilization products, original works, project outcomes and processes created as part of the Great Big Stories: Two-Eyed Seeing grant stream projects shall by jointly owned by successful grant recipients and Frayme for the sole purposes of knowledge mobilization and education. Please note that successful grantees may need to enter into third-party agreements connected with the project; it is important to ensure that Frayme is granted rights to use and publish any intellectual property resulting from these agreements.

But what does joint ownership mean? It means we will:

  • Collaborate with successful grantees to co-develop any knowledge products produced or reproduced as part of funded projects, to ensure the accuracy of the information produced and ensure products are in line with grantee organizations’ and Frayme’s mandates
  • Ensure successful grantee organizations remain centred as experts and knowledge keepers in their projects
  • Partner with successful grantee organizations to provide access to resources and internal/external expertise
  • Promote products and partnerships arising from this grant stream to our national network of partners

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