LaFontaine-Baldwin Symposium
2002 Lecture

Mr. Georges Erasmus

Re-entry into post-secondary education has become more attractive with the introduction of Native Studies and Aboriginal-specific programs in colleges and universities across the country. Aboriginal faculty are establishing a growing presence as role models, mentors and instructors. Aboriginal colleges and institutes have also become major players in post-secondary education. A few, like Saskatchewan Indian Federated College and the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology in British Columbia offer provincially recognized diploma and degree programs. Most of the 43 Aboriginal institutes across Canada have partnership arrangements with accredited provincial colleges and universities. The Institutes, under Aboriginal control, are helping to narrow the gap in educational attainment by developing and delivering community-based, culturally relevant programs, serving adult students as well as youth.

Aboriginal initiatives in healing and wellness, like those in education, are showing high levels of effectiveness. Research is confirming that Aboriginal services are also cost-efficient. Community Holistic Circle Healing was initiated in Hollow Water, Manitoba in response to alarming incidents of sexual abuse, including abuse of children. Berma Bushie, one of the key participants in the strategy described the situation facing the community in 1987: "The child welfare and legal system were at our door. The community had no involvement. Offenders were sent to jail where they had to deny their offense to survive, and two or three years later they were turned back into the community to offend again."

The 13-step program of intervention pioneered at Hollow Water engages the whole community, along with victims of abuse, offenders and their families, in assuming responsibility for restoring safety, health and balance.

In 2001 the ministry of the Solicitor General for Canada and the Aboriginal Healing Foundation sponsored a cost-benefit analysis of ten years’ experience with Community Holistic Circle Healing. Over a ten-year period federal and provincial ministries contributed 2.4 million dollars to the project. A total of 107 offenders who acknowledged their offenses had been dealt with. The research calculated that for each 2 dollars of investment by federal and provincial ministries the return was between 6 and 16 dollars in services rendered in lieu of pre-incarceration, prison, probation and parole. These figures reflect the efficiencies achieved through community-led services that would otherwise have been provided by government agencies. The analysis does not take into account that the rate of re-offending over the 10-year period was less than 2% for offenders in Circle Healing, while estimated rates of recidivism are 13% for sex offenses and 36% for other offenses. Neither does this very conservative cost analysis include benefits to the community that include improvements reported in child health, better parenting skills, increased safety and community responsibility overall. As a footnote, although residential school experience and its inter-generational effects are significantly implicated in the offenses treated by Circle Healing, not one legal action had been filed by a Hollow Water community member as a result of residential school abuse.

Evidence is accumulating that Aboriginal organizations are very effective in mobilizing human resources to meet challenges. The Aboriginal Healing Foundation was established in 1998 to distribute $350 million allocated by the federal government to address the effects of physical and sexual abuse in residential schools. Many Aboriginal people who attended residential schools, or whose parents attended residential schools, experience post-traumatic stress, suicide attempts and life-threatening addictions among other expressions of need. The Foundation has committed and distributed $156 million to community-based healing in the form of 800 grants. In June 2001 an interim evaluation surveyed just over 300 of the projects funded to date. The survey found that:1,686 communities and communities of interest were being served; just under 59,000 Aboriginal people were engaged in healing projects, less than 1% of whom had been involved in healing previously; and almost 11,000 Aboriginal people were receiving training as a result of funded projects. In an average month 13,000 hours of volunteer service in the community are logged. Program investments are having a multiplier effect unheard of in government services. .