Life’s Journey Inc.

Life’s Journey Inc.

Photo Credit: Ian McCausland

Debbie Cielen is a Nookomis, an Elder, director, and senior manager at Life’s Journey Inc. Of the clans of the turtle and the polar bear, her spirit name means Good Talking Turtle. She has been providing frontline cultural services for the participants of Life’s Journey Inc. for 10 years.

“As the grandmother, the role that I play is creating sacred space for our folks at Life’s Journey and staff, sharing cultural ceremonies and practices with all nations of people, especially for participants. Because many of them have been in care all their lives and may not have had an opportunity. In our ways of being, the most important thing is that we are spirit first,” she explains.

Life’s Journey Inc. is a non-profit social services agency operating in Winnipeg, Brandon, and Steinbach, Manitoba. The organization was founded in 2005 as an outreach service provider for adults and youth who are affected by fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), a neurodevelopmental condition resulting from prenatal alcohol exposure, that causes physical, behavioural, and cognitive challenges, such as learning disabilities, memory issues and impulse control difficulties. The agency has since expanded to support a variety of neurodiverse participants, their families, and community. 

Life’s Journey Inc. takes a holistic and individualized approach to supporting participants that includes housing supports, community supports, wellness programming, clinical services, and cultural care. For neurodiverse participants who have aged out of Child and Family Services care, finding a home can be complicated. Life’s Journey Inc. supports individuals in finding the right living situation, focusing on safe, affordable housing with 24/7 onsite supports and outreach. Examples include shift-staffed residences, home share (a residential arrangement matching individuals needing support with providers who offer a private room and assistance within a family-like setting), cluster housing, or supported independent living. 

Community support extends beyond housing to provide participants with case management for transitional planning, outreach for integrating into the community and advocacy for participants navigating community systems. In addition, wellness programming provides participants with life skills training such as cooking, cleaning and medication management and day programming promotes daily structure and enhances quality of life and self-expression through recreation, art and other creative endeavors. 

Life’s Journey Inc.’s methodology is based on a “two-eyed seeing approach,” a principle that encourages using both Western clinical perspectives, such as psychology, psychiatry, and addictions support, alongside traditional Indigenous practices informed by the teachings of the medicine wheel. Each direction on the medicine wheel represents aspects of Indigenous spiritual care, including spiritual identity, emotional connection, physical belonging, and intellectual empowerment. This approach is illustrated in their logo, which depicts stepping stones in the colours of the medicine wheel, and in the Ojibway translation of their name, Miikana Pimatiziwin, the path of the good life.

Cielen was called to this work after many years of sun dance and ceremony, fasting and learning from Elders and teachers who have come before her. She also supported residential school Survivors for over a decade through the Settlement Agreement Act, assisting in hearings and Truth and Reconciliation Commission events. Cielen attended over 500 hearings where she heard first-hand from Survivors about the atrocities they had lived through as children. She says that experience, coupled with a sun dance vision, showed her the path to her life’s work.  

“I heard the worst things in my life that would happen to children, and that taught me so much about what is needed, and also taught me all the secrets my family never told me about, and I could finally put them together,” Cielen says. “I carry the colours of all nations, and I’m here because I had a sun dance vision of how our program would be given to the people. What was shown is this medicine wheel, and this is our medicine that we bring to our daily activities. And it marries up with our (Life’s Journey) values too, which is a miracle.”

Cielen explains that what sets Life’s Journeys Inc. apart from other service providers is that it is a signatory of the Winnipeg Indigenous Accord, which informs its direction and the training they offer their staff. Life’s Journeys Inc. believes that cultural care is an absolute right and that a comprehensive approach to health must include traditional Indigenous healing as a significant component of clinical services. With support from Winnipeg Foundation, Cielen is currently mentoring a participant who has become a peer support worker in delivering cultural supports, such as introducing others to Indigenous teachings, ways of being, and healing practices, and assisting with ceremonies.

Participants feel comfortable approaching a peer to ask questions, explains Cielen, adding that the peer support worker is an individual who has worked diligently to develop their identity and gifts. She describes the peer support worker as a medicine person, someone who has a gentle spirit and exudes love, making them approachable and easy to talk to. Cielen believes that the individual is living out their life purpose by supporting their peers, guiding and connecting them with tradition. 

Peer support fits seamlessly into Life’s Journey Inc.’s collaborative approach. Their mission to foster inclusionary spaces to support a balanced life through a blend of responsive services is built on mentoring relationships. By offering a variety of services and environmental adaptations, Life’s Journey Inc. addresses a range of needs, helping participants access all the supports for their well-being through a single agency rather than visiting multiple service providers. The holistic approach helps the staff truly understand a participant’s needs and the most suitable types of support to help them live a more independent, fulfilling, and well-rounded life. Participants are empowered to develop practical skills for daily life, build healthy relationships and flourish creatively and spiritually.

Additionally, Cielen and other team members at Life’s Journey Inc. are mentoring the new peer support worker in organizational processes and leadership. Eventually, Cielen would like to see the peer support worker leading ceremonies and running sweat lodges. Part of Cielen’s long-range vision for the agency is to offer more land-based teachings in traditional circle structures, such as a grandmother’s lodge, where participants and the community at large can gather to practice sun dances and full moon ceremonies.

“Everyone has medicine—even an agency has medicine—to bring to the people… I feel like we’re a role model as an agency, because this is a place that really respects people… Our support services have kept participants safe. We’re very grateful for the financial support, because we’ve been able to empower folks to have their dignity and respect back, because folks are understanding the input and complexities of history and how it impacts people today.”