Ontario ICS Program
Indigenous Cultural Safety Program
Anti-Indigenous racial discrimination and bias have profound negative impacts on the health and wellness of Indigenous communities in Ontario. The Ontario Indigenous Cultural Safety (ICS) Program is focused on supporting Indigenous Health transformation as part of the overall health and social service systems transformation underway in Ontario.
The goal is to improve Indigenous healthcare experiences and outcomes by increasing respect and understanding of the unique history and current realities of Indigenous populations. We facilitate and promote transformative decolonizing, Indigenous specific anti-racist education using evidence informed and coordinated approaches and strategies. We also work in collaborative partnerships and support organizational change initiatives, seeking to improve awareness about how colonialism is embedded in services, and motivating people with influence to address anti-Indigenous racial discrimination.
There are a number of ways that the Program advances its mission:
- Core online training for health and social service professionals (see below)
- Continued online training modules (post core training)
- In-person workshops, training and meetings convened to support organizational and system level transformation
- Provincial and national knowledge exchange efforts
- Planning, monitoring, evaluation and research initiatives related to ICS
- Strategic, collaborative partnerships
- Partnership, coordination and promotion of a National ICS Webinar series (link)
Our small Ontario team supports organizational and system level coordination and planning related to ICS. If you have questions, or if you have taken the online training and would like to discuss how to improve Indigenous cultural safety in your organization, we would love to hear from you. We are also interested in collaboration and knowledge exchange opportunities with existing Indigenous cultural safety initiatives.