Awasis Agency of Northern Manitoba

Family Enhancement (North and South)

Prevention Services collaborates with the Child Protection units to address family preservation and risk mitigation.

Focus on safety and family relationships

  • Prevention Services addresses safety-related matters for children and parents while strengthening family relationships.

Cultural program collaboration

  • Prevention Services works with the cultural program team to identify and respond to the needs of families and the community. Cultural services emphasize Traditional healing and reconnecting families to the land, culture, language, music, and ceremonies.

Cultural services

  • Include biweekly sweat lodges and workshops at the request of families.

Monthly and bi-weekly programs

  • The Prevention Team has developed monthly programs to help families with holistic healing, focusing on the mind, body, spirit, and physical aspects.

Workshops and traditional services

  • Prevention Services offers ongoing workshops on various topics such as anger management, healthy relationship building, domestic violence, substance abuse, traditional parenting, cedar baths, and sweat lodges. Elders and knowledge keepers play a significant role in these programs.

Collaboration with community services

  • Prevention Services collaborates with a wide range of services and support systems within the community.

Prevention services

  • Assists families, particularly those relocating from northern communities to Thompson and Winnipeg, with referrals to partners like Jordan's Principle, MB Housing, Women's Shelter, and others. Prevention Services encourages and teaches healthy lifestyles and ensures families access resources and services in the eleven Communities, Thompson and Winnipeg.

Explore our testimonials

What participants say about our program.

Our team is dedicated to our
participants well being.

Family Enhancement

Family Enhancement Case Management

  • Provides preventive support to reduce children entering the protection system.
  • Staff carry a maximum of 15-20 cases due to family complexities.
  • Works with families and collaterals to prevent child entry into the system and promote reunification.
  • Uses emergency interventions and private arrangements for at-risk children, similar to customary care models.
  • More prevention and family reunification workers are required.
  • Offers in-home support: parent-aid, homemaker, and respite services.

Family Enhancement Programming

  • Focuses on awareness, education, advocacy, and counseling.
  • Engages families and communities in culturally appropriate programs.
  • Programs include parent conferences, traditional parenting, addiction workshops, grief support, and life skills.
  • Faces challenges in recruiting service providers due to stigma, criminal records, and payment delays.

Family Enhancement Cultural Services

  • Supports culturally appropriate programs and resources in northern communities.
  • Offers land-based programs and traditional ceremonies for healing and wellness.
  • Involves teachings on traditional practices like harvesting and cultural ceremonies.
  • Engages Elders for guidance and support.

Family Enhancement Wellness Camps

  • Provides camps for families, accessible by boat or snowmobile, focusing on land-based activities.
  • Aims to revitalize traditional skills and offer a space for healing.
  • Programming aligns with the four seasons, promoting peace and harmony.

Parenting Program

  • A seven-week program based on the seven sacred teachings.
  • Covers topics like addiction-free living, peaceful relationships, and trauma healing.
  • Facilitated by community resources, Elders, and the Family Enhancement team.

Sally Beardy, BSW
Director of Family Enhancement

​​​A message from the Director of Winnipeg Services

Winnipeg Prevention program provides services to children and families. Our focus is to address safety-related matters for children and parents while strengthening family relationships, encouraging, and teaching healthy lifestyles, and ensuring the families are accessing the resources and services within the City of Winnipeg.

Families engage with the program to work on their goals while building relationships that are healthy, and effective and encourage positive outcomes. With the support of our Cultural Program team, we work collaboratively to identify and respond to the needs and interests of the families and community.

Cultural services strive for ways of Traditional healing for families to reconnect to the land, Culture, Language, Music, and Ceremonies. Throughout the year, the prevention team has developed monthly programs to help families with the four parts of healing for human beings, which is the mind, the body, the spirit, and the physical part. Cultural services hold biweekly sweat lodges and ongoing workshops at the request of the families.

The Elders Knowledge Keepers, and facilitators play a huge role in our programming as they are the teachers of the culture, the land, and the healing for the families. Our team provides ongoing workshops to families related to anger management, attachment and healthy relationship building between parents and children, domestic violence and substance abuse, and traditional parenting programs, cedar baths, and sweat lodges.

Winnipeg Family Enhancement collaborated with an extensive range of services and support within the community.

Our families still struggle with relocating from the northern communities to the city, which can be very challenging. Some of our families require medical and treatment services, that are unavailable in the north and have to relocate to the city to receive the services they need. Prevention services will assist our families with referrals to our partners, Jordan's Principle, KTC, AFM, MB Housing, Life's Journey, Onashewawin, Women's Shelter, Medical Practitioners, Schools, and Employment and Income Assistance.

Tammy Rivera, BSW
Director of Winnipeg Services

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Awasis Agency of Northern Manitoba

Thompson Office

701 Thompson Drive
Thompson, Manitoba, Canada, R8N 2A2
x 204-677-1500    TF 1-800-667-4734
G 204-778-8428

Winnipeg Office

315 McGee Street
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, R3G 1M7
x 204-790-4400    TF 1-877-429-2747
G 204-790-4455

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