b'ONWA MEMBERSHIP INITIATIVESWorking in Relationship withBy Rick GarrickINDIGENOUS WOMENMinwaashin Lodge offers widespread support to women and families facing violenceT hroughout ONWAsMinwaashin Lodge offers student membership, chapters and councils areplacements, most of whom remain working diligently toand enter into employment with the support Indigenous women and theirorganization after program completion.families. For ONWA, these groups are foundational to our work; the chapters as incorporated organizations and councils as non-incorporated grassroots groups are all doing critical work in their communities. In Ottawa, Minwaashin Lodge Indigenous Womens Support Centre incorporated in 1994 with the purpose of providing culturally specific programs and services to Indigenous women, children and families to strengthen the Indigenous community. With an all-Indigenous Board of Directors, an executive director and a management team making up their organizational structure, they are taking a wraparound approach to supporting women, children and families that are fleeing violence and domestic abuse. Executive Director Mary Daoust says that this allows them to support women and their families no matter where they are on their journey.When they come with whatever it is that they need support with, be it crisis or be it just support with family or parenting or starting somewhere with employment, we can actually do it all under one roof, says Daoust. And that is what makes Minwaashin so uniquethe referrals for women, once they are in the door, mostly can be done in house, and thats the beauty [of it], because then the women are not bounced aroundgoing to different agencies and having to repeat their stories and having to share information over and over again.18Spring/Summer 2024'