Next City Vanguard Big Idea Challenge

Montreal’s Aboriginal population is growing rapidly, yet the community lacks a culturally safe and holistic health service center that is accessible to all Aboriginal people. On Friday, June 2, 2017 The Montreal Urban Aboriginal Health Centre (MUAHC) joined forces with Next City & Concordia University to co-create a 7-minute pitch for a $7,000 prize through the Vangaurd Conference Big Idea Challenge. An interdisciplinary team of 8 conference attendees worked with MUAHC leadership to design a short-term solution that would be a step in the right direction towards the end goal of building a fully functioning and independent health center dedicated to Montreal’s Aboriginal population. The Big Idea was to transform an existing room within a new hospital site into a Smudging Room with a Healing and Teaching Lodge, where Aboriginal patients and their family/friends could come together to focus on healing. Ultimately, the judges received an anonymous donation after the six presentations, and the project was awarded $2000.00 in funds for implementation.

TEAM:

Kirby Broadnax, Western Reserve Land Conservancy, Cleveland, OH Antionette Carroll, Creative Reaction Lab, St. Louis, MO Jonathan Cha, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada Kate Clark, Jefferson University College of Population Health, Philadelphia, PA Noel Doerner, City of Seattle, Seattle, WA Allie Kast, City of Indianapolis, Office of the Mayor, Indianapolis, IN Matthew Kennedy, Studio North, Calgary Michael Mendez, Yale University, New Haven, CT

MENTORS:

Pascale C. Annoual, Intersectorial Health​ Carrie Martin, Native Women's Shelter of Montreal ​Wendall Nicholas, Bonalos Indigenous Incorporated ​