Northwind Family Ministries
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Mission Statement
Our mission is to provide sacred places of community to honour each other’s stories, find healing through healthy, meaningful connections to Creator God and one another. We provide a holistic approach to serving individuals and families, embracing their uniqueness and highlighting resilience.
About This Cause
“The most special thing that ever happened to me was that the police officer knew my name.” Those are the words of a recovering addict upon reflection of her life on the streets. Many in Canada have lost their names – lost their identity. For many, this is the result of difficult life circumstances such as generational trauma and the resulting defensive habits such as drug and alcohol abuse. For others, such as the Indigenous population in Northern Ontario, this is literally true because of the systemic practice in the recent history of Canadian residential schools, to literally expunge the names of individuals from history. Colonial culture was forced on children who were forcibly taken from their homes and separated from their families for up to a decade or more. Their names were changed to European names. Now there are tens of thousands with deep wounds that can heal but only with careful help. These are the people NorthWind comes alongside of. NorthWind Family Ministries is a Canada Non-Profit Corporation and a Canadian Registered Charity. We offer holistic care through our four Strategic Anchors: Counselling, LifeBuild (life development and skills training), Land-Based Activities, and Spiritual Growth. We provide services to anyone seeking support, but specifically come alongside Indigenous people living in Thunder Bay and communities in crisis in northwestern Ontario. NorthWind is a relatively new charity, but founders Bera and Bonita Ledua, have been engaged in developing centres, programs and support for the Canadian Indigenous people since 1991, and in Thunder Bay since 2004. NorthWind team members, volunteers, and donors have also been engaged in serving in the Thunder Bay area for many years, adding a wealth of experience. NorthWind, started in 2016, has now grown to 27 full and part-time team members serving as psychotherapists, social workers, children/youth workers, coaches, Bible teachers, cooks, camp leaders, and accounting and administrative staff. NorthWind has an independent board of directors that provides well-balanced oversight as respected leaders in their fields of administration, social work, nursing, business, and post-secondary education. The chair and some members are Indigenous. Audited financial statements are available upon request. Information about board members is at http://www.northwindfm.org/team. The damage from residential schools, sexual abuse, addictions, poverty, food insecurity and homelessness is evident right outside our doors. We see it in the blanket left outside our exit door, where someone slept during a cold winter night, the empty bottles of hand sanitizer someone drank, or the woman on the curb with blood pouring from her wrists in her attempt to end it all. The community needs whole-life support, care and mentoring. In 2018 NorthWind has added new programs to offer street care to those in the downtown core and those coming to Thunder Bay from northern communities. A. NorthWind Counselling Centre Family Strengthening Program (FSP): This program provides families with the counselling and life skills needed to address the crises they are experiencing such as suicides, murders, accidental deaths, mental health challenges, addictions, etc. Counsellors provide family and individual counselling at a five-day intensive to help stabilize the families, and at follow-through appointments in the months that follow. They also allow time for family fun and creative activities that build resilience. If left unattended, grief and trauma can block our ability to respond in a healthy way to each other; it can eat away at resilience, devastate limited coping strategies, and increase substance abuse. In response, we developed a program that provides safe places, facilitated by family counsellors/registered psychotherapists, to help rebuild healthy attachment bonds, giving space for healing and resulting in decreased mental health issues. This unique program engages family members in games, crafts, and activities that improve attachment, which in turn brings healing. Individual Counselling: Individuals from Thunder Bay and the region access counselling services from our qualified team of registered psychotherapists and social workers. We commit to offering everyone counselling regardless of their ability to pay. Training: NorthWind offers courses such as Competent Caring and Sustainable Caring. These programs provide training for people to engage in caring for others and equip them to address secondary trauma as a result of supporting others. This increases healthy lay support in the community. We also provide opportunities for college/university students to gain experience in the social service fields. Compass: Northern communities invite our Compass team to come for a week and help them cope with trauma such as multiple suicides. The team usually consists of counsellors, LifeBuild coaches, and child and youth workers. We often do not have enough capacity to fill all the requests for help from northern communities. Street Care: Street Outreach has become a hallmark of NorthWind since the pandemic. Teams go into the surrounding areas where street-adjacent congregate to offer snacks, warm clothes and caring, safe relationships. They are invited to other NorthWind programs they may be unaware of. Teams are trained in trauma-informed care and related counselling principles, sometimes averting or de-escalating mental health crises – or even violence – on the spot. Community Care: Street adjacent individuals may be unaware, or unable, to access community resources such as proper health care, detox, housing, or replacement of lost I.D. Our social navigators assist by making calls or being a contact for medical or other personal to reach individuals with no address or phone, driving them to appointments and doing follow-up. Mental Health: Some who have significant mental health issues can access “walk-in” counselling from our qualified staff. Other programs, such as the Next Steps drop-in program, provide opportunities for relationship building in a safe, healthy environment. B. LifeBuild: LifeBuild Series: LifeBuild provides safe learning environments by trauma-informed trained coaches. They provide an environment for small groups to learn and practice skills such as parenting, setting boundaries, and overcoming grief. The United Way Thunder Bay has provided grants to assist in funding this program and it is growing substantially. We have dialogued with Shelter House regarding providing supportive activities. LifeBuild sessions are geared for youth and adult learners who have experienced trauma, impacting their learning and coping strategies. Cooking for Life: Offers classes on making healthy, nutritious and tasty meals. People attending our programs have expressed their lack of awareness on preparing food from foodbanks. By providing the ingredients and instruction, we help families become better equipped to care for themselves by increasing their repertoire of healthy, economical meals. C4L also provides robust community for the isolated, a huge benefit in itself (https://www.northwindfm.org/cooking-for-life) Land-Based Activities: Camps and Retreats: NorthWind owns Eagle’s Cove, a 178-acre property on Lottit Lake, in Jacques township, about 40 minutes out of Thunder Bay. We run camps for children, teens, families and Indigenous youth attending high school and living without their family in the city. Many of the participants live in Thunder Bay low-income housing where few can afford to pay fees. We depend on donations from individuals, organizations and churches; volunteer teams provide staff for the camps and retreats. NorthWind believes it is important to provide Land-Based activities such as canoeing, archery, ice fishing, campfires, etc. that help ground people when life is overwhelming. Many individuals connected to the land in their childhood so their move to Thunder Bay left them with a significant loss. NorthWind provides a place for individuals and families to reengage so they can heal. Volunteers and Donors: NorthWind has growing support in Thunder Bay and receives financial support from Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, the United States and Europe. Such a wide variety of individuals, businesses, churches, and teams from an assortment of denominations, gives us a chance to introduce them to Thunder Bay. Teams arrive from any number of locations, nationally and internationally, to engage in what NorthWind is doing. They come with energy, passion and funds. Throughout their visit (usually one-two weeks at a time, often annually), NorthWind staff become ad hoc tour guides at prominent landmarks for these teams! C. Spiritual Growth: The Gathering: Each Sunday, in response to requests from participants in other programs, we provide a learning place with community building activities and a meal. We begin the evening with a game or activity that participants do together at each table. People get to know each other. We have a short devotional, then serve a meal. Indigenous people, coming from the Northern Communities, seek out a place to connect back to the Creator. Many elders have been attending since we began six years ago. A sense of community is growing! The people talk together, some in Ojibway or Oji-Cree and others translate. They laugh together a lot. These aspects can’t be understated as isolation can lead to additional mental health concerns. After supper, those who want to may attend a Bible study. Bible Studies: Bible studies connect people with the Bible and with each other. Some studies are conducted in groups that have been together for years; others are done on an individual mentoring basis. Learning Centre. The Learning Centre was launched in 2021. The Learning Centre comes alongside people where they are to take Bible classes. Even those who can’t read or have little education, are welcome to join a class. Others have been able to take enough courses to follow a ministerial calling.