Jennifer Hedges, an assistant professor in the University of Manitoba’s faculty of social work and a former social worker, says situations where emergency placement workers are sending kids to school in dirty or inappropriate clothes or not teaching them how to brush their teeth shouldn’t be happening — and if they are, it’s important to find out why.

For the full story, please visit CBC News.

To read the entire article, please head to CBC News.

Measuring safety by belonging

Wâhkôhtowin, a Cree and Métis worldview, emphasizes that we live in a universe defined by relatedness, and that we have responsibilities to respect and care for one another.

Access to public spaces like libraries, healthcare, and government service buildings is essential for education, employment, and housing support. Yet many face racism and stigma around substance use, mental health, and poverty that block these access points. Staff often lack the capacity or training to support people in crisis. Traditional security can push vulnerable people away and sometimes escalates harm by involving police.

The Community Safety Host program was designed to address these challenges directly. It offers an Indigenous-led, people-centred alternative to security guards in shelters, libraries, and community centres across Winnipeg. Community Safety Hosts receive security training plus specialized training in compassionate, trauma-informed care, harm reduction, mental health, working to address root causes of oppression, and accepting people as they are—helping rather than rejecting. All of the training is rooted in wâhkôhtowin, training Community Safety Hosts to treat all they encounter as though they are kin.

Reframing crisis through connection

Anishinaabe artist Jordan Stranger represented the research findings in commissioned artwork called “Nitotem,” visually depicting the seven interconnected ways that Community Safety Hosts embody wâhkôhtowin through their work.

For more than a decade, Daniel Waycik worked in community safety programs and sensed something was missing. Policies focused on security but rarely addressed relationships or the deeper reasons behind crises. When he began working with Zoongizi Ode on the Housing Solutions Lab and later co-founded Persons Community Solutions (PCS), wâhkôhtowin gave him the grounding and language to transform his work.

“Wâhkôhtowin isn’t just another framework—it’s one of the most grounding value systems I’ve worked with because it gets something fundamental: everyone has gifts.”

Community Safety Hosts bring their authentic selves and lived experience to everyday moments: helping someone untangle government forms, sitting quietly with a grieving person in a library corner, or walking alongside someone to a shelter. Waycik cautions that no single program can fix poverty, housing shortages, or broken systems, but he has witnessed how Community Safety Hosts “soften the harshness” of these realities by treating people like they matter—creating small pockets of hope in places where many feel watched, judged, or pushed out.

As Waycik noted, “When I watch our Community Safety Hosts work, I see wâhkôhtowin lived out in ways that still surprise me. Incidents aren’t urgent—addressing people’s needs in a timely and trauma-informed way is. What frontline responders grounded in wâhkôhtowin all share is this ability to see past the crisis to the person and help that person see their own strengths and possibilities.”

A program shaped by lived experience

Community Safety Hosts didn’t emerge from a boardroom. Instead, the program grew from the voices of people who knew what it meant to be made unwelcome in public spaces. Through the Housing Solutions Lab, Zoongizi Ode gathered stories from community members who recounted being followed, questioned, or told to move along when they simply wanted a warm place to sit or access to a computer.

Mary Burton, Executive Director of Zoongizi Ode, describes how these conversations shaped the program:

“When we started the Housing Solutions Lab, we wanted to find out what our community and relatives needed. The concept was never heard of until we collaborated with PCS. Since 2021, we have worked tirelessly to make it safe for folks with lived experience to learn and grow and to share their experiences in a good way. I am super proud of everyone and everything we have created here with the Community Safety Hosts!”

The Community Safety Host program also provides meaningful employment opportunities for young people aging out of care and others with lived experience of poverty, homelessness, incarceration, and exclusion. Hosts draw on their own histories to recognize when someone is struggling, de-escalate tense situations, and connect people with food, housing, healthcare, and other supports.

Wâhkôhtowin: Researching the heart of community safety

Research conducted by Dr. Mayor and Dr. Chamberlain highlights a critical distinction between “security” and “safety”: “Security often focuses on securing buildings, property, and the privileged few. Prioritizing true community safety means rejecting security for a few and instead focusing on safety for all through community care, relationship building, and ensuring that everyone has access to what they need, which includes food, housing, healthcare, emotional support, clothing, and more. Our research demonstrates how the Community Safety Hosts’ practice of wâhkôhtowin is one way of creating community safety for all here in Winnipeg.”

At the core of the Community Safety Hosts’ approach is wâhkôhtowin, an understanding that we live in a universe defined by relatedness and responsibilities to care for one another.

The community report, “How Community Safety Hosts Practice Wâhkôhtowin and Create Safety through Relationship Building” (Mayor et al., 2025), outlines seven interconnected ways the hosts embody wâhkôhtowin through their work:

• Sharing kindness and concern
• Taking care of those needing protection and guidance
• Giving loving support without judgment
• Connecting people to a circle of relationships
• Holding people accountable within the community
• Helping people find their role and responsibility
• Giving gifts of time and willingness to listen

As their research demonstrates, true community safety isn’t about locking down buildings—it’s about securing relationships, reminding us we are kin, deeply interconnected.

Rethinking what safety means

Research by Dr. Mayor and Dr. Chamberlain highlights a powerful distinction: traditional security often prioritizes property and protection for the privileged, while true community safety focuses on people, especially those marginalized, through care, connection, and meeting essential needs.

Community Safety Hosts are living proof that safety can be reimagined and rebuilt with relationship-centred care at its foundation. Their work offers a model for cities seeking to move beyond enforcement toward community-led safety.

At the report launch in the Millennium Library’s Carol Shields Auditorium in October 2025, hosts, community partners, and researchers shared transformative stories: spaces once intimidating have become welcoming places where someone greets you by name, listens without judgment, and helps you find what you need. Anishinaabe artist Jordan Stranger represented the research findings in commissioned artwork called “Nitotem,” visually depicting the seven research themes.

Yet, a safe community in which everyone’s needs are met does not yet exist in Winnipeg.

True change in systems and policies is needed to ensure all people have what they need to thrive. The CSH model offers a strong foundation to develop similar initiatives in Winnipeg and beyond. If wâhkôhtowin is put into practice across different public spaces and relationships are centred at the heart of safety, change can happen in Winnipeg and beyond.

Wâhkôhtowin offers a vision of safety where everyone is seen, supported, and included, where community connections become the strongest form of protection.

To read the community research report, please visit: https://mra-mb.ca/publication/how-community-safety-hosts-practice-wahkohtowin 

For more information on the research, please contact Dr. Christine Mayor at: christine.mayor@umanitoba.ca or Dr. Julie Chamberlain at: j.chamberlain@uwinnipeg.ca

For more information on Community Safety Hosts, please visit: https://pcs-scp.ca/ 

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?

My name is Eden Middleton (they/she) and I am a Settler Canadian from Treaty 7, Moh’kins’tsis. I come from a farming family, grew up camping in the Rockies, and studied English and Drama at the University of Calgary.  This sparked a love for critical theory and the arts-based research that I’m translating into my Master in Social Work program here at the University of Manitoba. I’m also a practicing theatre artist, working as a playwright, dramaturg, producer and theatre-maker.

What is your research about and how does it incorporate your experience as a theatre artist?

My thesis explores agency and coercion in psychiatric hospitalizations related to suicidality through arts-based research, specifically looking at how people story and re-story their experience through theatre and what that emotional and embodied medium can teach us.  In navigating both myself and loved ones through our mental health system, I was deeply impacted by how that system can be both a deeply traumatizing and harmful place while simultaneously feeling like a lifeline and necessary resource during an incredibly vulnerable time. I unpacked some of my own feelings about this through the writing and producing of my fringe show Date Night and through that process I began to wonder about how playwriting might serve as a medium to unlock new ways of knowing about something that can be really difficult to talk about. In other words, this research gets curious about how we reclaim narratives about a space and time where control of how that story went was often taken away.

Do you have any advice for MSW students who are just starting their program?

Research and graduate school are both challenging and often deeply personal work. For me, it’s been really important to anchor in my loved ones, community, and the places where I find joy outside of school and social work practice. We talk a lot about ‘self care’ and that’s important too, but really I think what matters even more is how we invest in and care for each other. Other people will remind you why you’re doing the work when you’re tired, buoy you when the work feels heavy, and celebrate you when you achieve those milestones you’ve worked so hard for. As someone who moved here for this program, I’ve been lucky to find a network of support from my supervisor Dr. Christine Mayor, other professors, my cohort, and my community back home – but not surprised (community is arguably part of what social workers do best.) They’ve made this program manageable, and I am endlessly grateful to them– and I’d advise anyone to rely on your community and let your community rely on you.

What is your vision for the future and what do you hope your research accomplishes?

Long term, my dream for the future is to intertwine my social work practice with my theatre practice and make theatre that is co-created with, called for by, and transformative for communities. Whether I get there through further PhD research, arts-based grants, or practice in community is still something I’m discerning. I also know that even at this stage in my research there are more questions than I can answer here about suicidality and autonomy – and that I remain deeply passionate about and committed to anti-carceral approaches to mental health care.  I hope that this study makes some small contribution towards that goal.

Eden is still recruiting for research participants. Interested participants can find the posting at Creative Community Change Research at @cccresearch or by email at middlet6@myumanitoba.ca to find out more. 

Those curious about Eden’s artistic practice can follow their Sunflower Collective Theatre @sunflowercollectivetheatre.

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?

My name is Emma Cowman (she/they) and I grew up in Treaty 4 & 7 territories, in Regina, Saskatchewan and Calgary, Alberta. I have a BA honours in Psychology, and a BA in Women & Gender Studies from the University of Regina, and I am a volunteer with the Regina Abortion Support Network, Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, and am a board member on Action Canada’s National Youth Advisory Board. Currently, I live in Regina, with my partner, cat, and two dogs.

I moved to Winnipeg to attend the University of Manitoba’s foundational MSW program. I have since completed my coursework for the foundational and advanced years and returned home to Saskatchewan, where I have been conducting my research virtually. I am deeply interested in Reproductive Justice research, specifically relating to the topics of abortion, reproductive coercion, and 2SLGBTQIA+ reproduction.

What is your research about and why did you choose to focus on reproductive justice for 2SLGBTQIA+ people?

My MSW thesis uses the Reproductive Justice conceptual framework to explore the experiences of 2SLGBTQIA+ people who have accessed or sought access to abortion care in Manitoba. My project has come out of Dr. Lindsay Larios’ project Abortion in Manitoba: An intersectional analysis of care, in which I have been working as a research assistant on this project for nearly two years. Throughout the data collection phase of the Abortion in Manitoba project, I had the honour to hear abortion stories from many Manitobans, including a few queer and trans Manitobans. Their stories stood out to me as a queer person as they spoke about the challenges they uniquely faced as non-heterosexual-cisgender people in abortion spaces. Abortion research tends to be focused on cisgender-heterosexual experiences, as there remains to be an underlying assumption that only cisgender-heterosexual women can become pregnant. Through my MSW thesis, I hope to not only challenge these normative assumptions, but also advocate for more inclusive and affirming abortion care spaces for 2SLGBTQIA+ in Manitoba.

Do you have any advice for MSW students who are just starting their program?

My advice for MSW students who are just starting their program is to build relationships with their classmates, advisor, and instructors. I met some amazing friends and have had some amazing mentors throughout my time in the MSW program who have supported and cheered me on. From helping me understand class concepts to being a soundboard for my thesis ideas – these people have made my time in the program so meaningful, and I could not have come this far without them!

What is your vision for the future and what do you hope your research accomplishes?

My vision for the future is to stay in the Canadian prairies and keep showing up as a reproductive justice advocate and researcher for my communities. This fall, I’ll be submitting PhD applications so I can keep learning, growing, and exploring new ways to encourage change. I hope that this project, and the ones to come, can spark conversations, shift policies, and improve healthcare in ways that truly reflect the principles of reproductive justice. More than anything, I want my work to help create prairie communities where everyone can make decisions about their bodies, families, and futures free from stigma, coercion, and systemic barriers.

Emma’s project is still recruiting participants for interviews. If you identify as 2SLGBTQIA+, have sought or accessed an abortion in Manitoba in the last five years (2020-2025), are 18 years or older, and are interested in participating, you can contact Emma via email at emma.cowman@umanitoba.ca.

Participation entails a 1-1.5-hour interview via Zoom, and all participants will receive a $40 honorarium as a thank you for participation.

At a news conference Monday at the Millennium Library, Karin Borland spoke as researchers from the University of Manitoba and University of Winnipeg presented their findings on how community safety hosts practice Wâhkôhtowin — a Cree and Métis worldview rooted in kinship and interconnectedness — to create safety through relationship building.

Read the full story at The Free Press

Dr. Christine Mayor, assistant professor, UM Faculty of Social Work, Inner City Social Work Program and Dr. Julie Chamberlain, associate professor, Urban and Inner-City Studies, University of Winnipeg, present their report “How community safety hosts practice Wâhkôhtowin.” For more information on this report, please contact them directly at: christine.mayor@umanitoba.ca and j.chamberlain@uwinnipeg.ca

AmyAnne standing beside her winning poster

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?

My name is AmyAnne and I am a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Manitoba. I am also a social worker in emergency mental health services here in Winnipeg. I am back at school in a doctoral program because I truly believe that social workers are uniquely positioned to recognize important issues impacting people’s lives through the work that they do.

What is your research about and why did you choose to focus on domestic violence survivors?

My doctoral research focuses on survivors of sexual violence and their experiences. My work at this conference was on the unique experiences of sexual minorities, but my main focus is on the experience of survivors who choose to engage with the justice system after a sexual assault. This research emerged out of personal work experience with survivors, justice officials, and community agencies. I have seen the conditions that survivors are facing and know that change is needed at the individual and structural level. I am passionate about the work that I am doing with survivors in my front-line practice and am committed to conducting research that is informed by the needs of the communities impacted by sexual violence.

Do you have any advice for new researchers or doctoral students who are just starting their program?

In terms of advice for new PhD students just starting their program, I think it’s so important to hold on to the reasons that brought them to the program. When everything gets tangly and stressful, the passion that pushed folks to apply will help carry them through. 

What is your vision for the future and what do you hope your research accomplishes?

I would love to see my work result in practical policy changes that centre the experiences of survivors, who are often overlooked in criminal justice settings. The rights of the accused are important; so are the rights of survivors.

To listen, please follow link to CBC Listen.

Dr. Christine Mayor, assistant professor, received an award for Caring or Complicit Bodies?: Addressing Carceral Logics in the Helping Professions.

Mayor’s project investigates how carceral logics or punishment-based values and principles blame marginalized people rather than bad systems. Across North America, people who are Black, Indigenous, racialized, poor, disabled, 2SLGBTQ+, migrants, or unhoused face high rates of criminalization, are often treated as disposable or punishable. Instead of understanding an individual’s personal situation, the first response is often to control or punish them. These principles are often embedded within “helping spaces” such as schools, child welfare agencies, non-profits, counselling services and treatment centres.

Mayor’s research, in partnership with Dr. Britton Williams (Co-I, California Institute for Integral Studies) aims to support helping professions in moving away from carceral logics, so they can better serve those who are most marginalized and harmed in current systems.

Dr. Blessing Ojembe, assistant professor, received an award for Exploring Preferences and Strategies to increase the Utilization of Adult Day Programs and Senior Community Centres by Black Older Adults in Manitoba.

As the number of older adults grows globally, so do concerns around loneliness and social isolation and ways to mitigate their negative impacts on the aging population, including ethnically minoritized groups. Thus, Ojembe’s research will explore ways to improve the utilization and participation of Black older adults in Adult Day Programs (ADPs) and Senior Community Centres (SCCs) across Manitoba.

Services like ADPs and SCCs are increasingly important for supporting aging in place and helping older adults stay connected to their communities. Unfortunately, these programs are often not culturally appropriate and therefore make Black older adults feel culturally unsafe, which hinders their use of these services, and further exacerbates their experience of loneliness and social isolation.

Ojembe’s project will assess availability, accessibility, and gaps in services for older Black adults; explore their needs and preferences; and develop practical resources and policy recommendations to enhance cultural representation and participation of Black older adults in ADPs and SCCs.

Dr. Ashley Stewart-Tufescu, assistant professor, received an award for Building Futures: Sociocultural Effects of an Empowerment Initiative for Young Displaced Rohingya Women.

Stewart-Tufescu, in collaboration with Dr. Bree Akesson (Wilfrid Laurier University) and The Hope Foundation for Women and Girls of Bangladesh, is leading a study on the Health Assistant Training (HAT) Program in Kutupalong, Cox’s Bazar, recognized as the world’s largest, most densely populated, and under-resourced refugee camp. An estimated 52–67% of Rohingya refugees in Kutupalong are women and girls. 

This research focuses on young Rohingya women living in the camp, a population facing severe gender-based vulnerabilities, including early and forced marriage, gender-based violence, and restricted access to education and livelihood opportunities. Using a socioecological lens, the study will assess the impacts of the HAT Program by examining the experiences of program trainees, alongside the perspectives of their families, community leaders, and humanitarian practitioners. It will explore how participation in the program influences young women’s empowerment, shifts in gender norms, decision-making within families and communities, and broader sociocultural dynamics within the camp context. 

The findings will generate critical insights into how gender-transformative initiatives can promote women’s leadership, challenge harmful social norms, and expand access to vital services and opportunities for displaced and marginalized women and girls in humanitarian settings. 

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?

My name is Tara Christianson; I was born and raised in Treaty 1 territory and have lived in Winnipeg for the past 18 years. I am Red River Métis, citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation and a member of the Bison Local. I also have Scottish, Irish, and English settler ancestry. I’m a mom, a partner, sister, daughter and auntie. I’m also a registered social worker that works in the mainstream health care system.

What is your research about and why did you choose this particular topic for your thesis?

My MSW thesis explored the impact of COVID-19 on services for Indigenous people living with HIV who use substances. As someone working on the front line of health care throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, I witnessed the rapid changes to service and the detrimental impact it had on many individuals already marginalized by a colonial system designed to oppress, such as Indigenous people and people who use substances. Research, particularly highly medicalized HIV research, tends to be rooted in westernized concepts that do not acknowledge the vast Indigenous knowledge systems that exist. The community-based research design of my thesis provided me the opportunity to engage directly with community to learn their experiences and perspectives in relation to accessing and providing services during that time. I believe that community knowledge is the key to addressing many of the harms experienced within systems by rejecting deficit-based models of care and centering the wisdom, practices, and relationships within Indigenous communities. Utilizing Indigenous Storywork helped me to remain grounded within that understanding throughout the entirety of my thesis.

What program are you graduating from and can you tell me a little about your experience in the program?

I graduated from the Faculty of Social Work Master’s program. I started the program in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when all classes were still online, coming to in person classes during the last semester of my program. I was fortunate enough to have connection with the Village Lab and developed relationship with other students, faculty, and community throughout that time.

Dr. Rusty Souleymanov was my faculty advisor as well as mentor through the Village Lab where he is the director. I am grateful to have been matched with Dr. Souleymanov and am looking forward to continuing my work with him during my PhD. I was fortunate to be able to ground myself in community and Indigenous research methodologies with his guidance and support.

Do you have any advice for students interested in the MSW program?

Consider the thesis route and choose a research topic that you are truly passionate about. I entered the social work profession with the intent of disrupting the systems that perpetuate harm – many of which this profession has had a foundational and ongoing role in. For me, I feel that this academic route is helping me do that. I am grateful to have the pleasure to engage in community-based research and am deeply honoured for the stories that have been shared with me through this work. I have a deep commitment to community and ensuring that those stories are brought forward in ways that work towards lasting change.

Any other information you would like to share? Vision for the future? Other research interests?

This work for me is ongoing. I’ll be starting my PhD in social work in September 2025 and look forward to expanding on some of the findings from my MSW thesis, notably surrounding folx who use substances and are currently unhoused. I’ll be working from a community-based research design and incorporating the Métis Kitchen Table approach. I think that it is absolutely necessary as well to continually be working to decolonize academia and utilizing Indigenous research methods that move beyond western models and concepts.

Lastly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Faculty of Social Work for the nomination. I am humbled and honoured to be one of this year’s recipients. I am very happy to see the recognition for these insightful and meaningful stories gifted by community.