How to Get Started
The Caring Society, with our partners, has created many resources and tools to support and foster growth for the Touchstones of Hope movement for reconciliation so that all First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children, youth, and their families are healthy and living with dignity and respect. Here are some resources designed to help you build and sustain your own Touchstones of Hope movement:
- Training and facilitation: working with the Caring Society to help get you started in your movement.
- Touchstones of Hope Toolkit: resources to help you get involved with your Touchstones of Hope movement.
- Lastly, here is our Touchstones of Hope Dialogue series that wrapped up in November 2021. The series looked at different aspects of child wellbeing and Indigenous child welfare in Canada and the USA. All the sessions are available on YouTube.
The Caring Society has worked with organizations to adapt the Touchstones of Hope principles and process of reconciliation to suit their own needs in working with Indigenous communities, peoples and organizations. The UFCW, for example, created their own version of the Touchstones of Hope for reconciliation in the workplace.
If you are not sure about what would work best for your community or organization, please contact us.
Training and Facilitation
The Caring Society offers various in-person Touchstones of Hope sessions intended for communities or organizations who wish to begin or strengthen a reconciliation movement. This is also a great opportunity for organizations working with Indigenous children, youth and families who wish to learn or expand upon their knowledge of Indigenous peoples in Canada as well as to create best practices in working with Indigenous children, youth, and families.
The hosting community or organization is responsible for covering all costs of a session including facilitator fee and costs for travel. The Caring Society will gladly discuss the possibility of coming to your community or organization to participate in a Touchstones of Hope session.
Information Session
A Touchstones of Hope Information Session is typically the length of a keynote presentation (1 to 2 hours). It involves a presentation on the Touchstones of Hope, including historical and current context, and questions from the audience. The goal is to educate about the movement and provide ways in which communities or organizations can meaningfully participate.
Engagement Session
An Engagement Session is usually a day in length and is ideal for communities or organizations that may not necessarily want to engage in a full reconciliation movement but who may want to be an ally or have more in-depth learning about the movement. Engagement sessions can be tailored to address the goal(s) of a community or organization, and if applicable, adapt the five Touchstones of Hope principles to the community's or organization’s unique context.
Train the Trainer Session
A two day Train the Trainer Session is ideal for communities or organizations that want to undertake a Touchstones of Hope movement but need to have individuals trained in the Touchstones of Hope principles and process.
Community Session
A Community Session is typically two days in length and is intended for people in Indigenous communities and those working with Indigenous communities to come together to share their dreams for reconciliation. The session provides a safe space to share things that have been working for Indigenous children and things that have not been working. The overall goal of the session is to leave with next steps and for communities to have the chance to do this.
All of the sessions mentioned above can be tailored to meet the unique requirements of your community or organization. If the context of your reconciliation movement does not fall within any of these sessions, please contact the Caring society and we can discuss the many possibilities of creating your own Touchstones of Hope movement.
Tool Kit
The Touchstones of Hope movement encourages meaningful collaboration with others devoted to helping make sure Indigenous children and families are healthy and living with dignity and respect. This is why the Caring Society created resources that will enable communities and organizations to build momentum toward reconciliation in their own context by using the Touchstones of Hope principles: self-determination, culture and language, holistic approach, structural interventions, and non-discrimination.
In 2012, the Caring Society created a tool kit to assist organizations working with children, families and communities to develop vision plans to ensure the wellbeing of Indigenous children and families and that they have the same opportunities to succeed. In 2019, we updated the tool kit to be more user-friendly and it now also includes a "How-to Guide." If you would like the tool kit, please contact us.
