Talk4Healing: Helpline by Indigenous Women for Indigenous Women now available across Ontario
Ontario is home to the largest population of Indigenous women in Canada; Helpline supports Indigenous women making change that builds healthier and more secure communities.
Toronto, ON, (October 3, 2018) – Beendigen and the Ontario Native Women’s Association (ONWA) will be announcing the expansion of Talk4Healing, a crucial helpline that promotes the mental health and well-being of Indigenous women.
Currently available only in northern Ontario communities with this expansion Talk4Healing will now be available throughout the province with telephone, text and chat services available to over 129,000 Indigenous women. With this expansion Talk4Healing will increase their call intake capacity ten-fold. Helpline services will continue to be provided by operating partner, Beendingen.
Launched on October 19, 2012, Talk4Healing is a 24-hr. helpline ‘for Indigenous women, by Indigenous women’, offering services in 14 Indigenous languages as well as English. In the last year alone, Talk4Healing received nearly 2,000 calls from northern communities, with the majority of women aged 26-55 (62 per cent), followed by those over 55 (21 per cent) and then women 16-25 (16 per cent).
Funding for the expanded services is supported by the Provincial Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services.
Interview and video/photo opportunity:
What: Official announcement of the expansion of the 24/7 helpline for Indigenous women, Talk4Healing
Date: Fri., October 19, 2018, 12:00-1:30 pm
Where: Chelsea Hotel, the Wren Room
33 Gerrard St. West Toronto, ON
Who: Dr. Dawn Lavell Harvard, Ph.D., ONWA Board President and a member of the Wikwemikong First Nation
Mohawk Elder Jan Longboat, Member of the Order of Canada
Debra Vermette, First Nation woman from the Wahpeton Dakota Nation in Saskatchewan, Executive Director, Beendigen
Robin Haliuk, MétisTalk4Healing Supervisor, Beendigen.
Passwewe Ikewug Singers, Indigenous Women’s Drum Group
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To schedule an interview or for further information, please contact:
Sonia Prashar | soniaprashar@