About the Cultural Safety Grants program

We have created a Cultural Safety Grants Program aimed at supporting family physicians to continue or initiate new culturally safe practices. The program forms part of the BCCFP’s ongoing Declaration of Commitment to Reconciliation and addressing anti-Indigenous racism and inequity in health care.

NEW in 2024! We are excited to announce that we have expanded the Cultural Safety Grants Program. The grants available will now include:

Up to seven (7) grants of up to $5,000 each
Up to three (3) grants of up to $10,000 each

Grants are awarded based on the potential of the project to*:

Assist family physicians in engaging and developing relationships with Indigenous communities.
Embed Cultural Safety & Humility (CS&H) into community-based family practice, Patient’s Medical Home, and/or Primary Care Networks.
Create or modify tools and/or resources, that improve the delivery of care for Indigenous patients.
Support in the creation of a network or practice community that focuses on practical ways to incorporate CS&H into practice.
Develop a mechanism whereby family physician voices can be heard and lent to advocacy efforts around CS&H to create a climate for change.

*Please read grant criteria in full below.

2024-2025 Grant Intake (deadline to apply: November 6, 2024)

Applications are open as of September 24, 2024. Applicants will be notified of decisions by mid-January.

2023-2024 Cultural Safety Grant Recipients

The third call for project proposals closed in early November 2023 and grants were awarded in early 2024. The BCCFP’s Cultural Safety & Humility Working Group evaluated all applications and selected 7 projects to receive $5000 each, listed below. We thank all those who applied.

1. ʔukiniⱡwiytiyaⱡa (to do something with one heart): Creating a Culturally Safe Emergency Waiting Room at Invermere & District Hospital – Invermere
A project building on previous engagement with the local Ktunaxa Nation, to commission a young artist from the Yaq̓ itʔa·knuqⱡiʔit community to design and install a mural that will feature prominently in the emergency room entrance and waiting area in the Invermere & District Hospital. The theme of the image will be ʔukiniⱡwiytiyaⱡa, which means “to do something with one heart”. It will have a greeting in Ktuanaxa language Hu sukiⱡq̓ ukni kin wam,tkxamin, which translates to “I’m glad you are here, come in.”

2. Cultivating Cultural Competence: A Journey to Culturally Safe Healthcare – Victoria
A collaborative project with South Island Division of Family Practice to build on existing relationships with local First Nations and Metis to create an Elders circle and organize a series of gatherings and engagement events to increase local family physicians’ cultural competence and develop actionable steps to provide culturally safe care. Events will include a medicinal plant walk, a Longhouse experience and the Blanket exercise.

3. Long Term Care Resident and Family Council – Bella Bella
A project to support establishment of a council and meetings between residents, family and some health care staff to support long term care (LTC) at Bella Bella Hospital, located on reserve in Bella Bella (Heiltsuk territory). Funding will be directed at opportunities to improve the LTC environment at the hospital, such as the introduction of more local diet in patient meals, creating a more culturally sensitive/celebratory environment through ceremony or meals, or bringing in speakers (e.g. geriatric specialist) to present to the residents and families.

4. Enhancing Cultural Safety in Reproductive Health Services – Vancouver
A jointly funded project with Willow Reproductive Health Society and Everywoman’s Health Centre Society to enhance cultural safety in the clinic environment through the creation of a traditional tea stand, guided by a local Indigenous ethnobotanist, installation of other local Indigenous cultural symbols and the creation of related education resources for staff.

5. Indigenous-Inclusive Healthcare Transformation: Fostering a Welcoming Maternity Clinic – Dawson Creek
A project to strengthen existing partnerships with local Indigenous communities and knowledge keepers through active engagement in a process of co-creating a welcoming maternity clinic space, by incorporating elements of local Indigenous art, signage and a visible acknowledgment of the clinic’s location on Treaty 8 territory.

6. Embracing Indigenous Birth Wisdom – Victoria
A project to produce a community podcast series featuring Indigenous expert guests, promoting Indigenous birth wisdom on Vancouver Island. The series is intended to complement resources already in use and leverage an existing platform for interdisciplinary information sharing about maternity practices.

7. W’SANEC art for Saanich Peninsula Outreach Team – North Saanich
A project to supplement a new collaborative clinic initiative supporting mental health and substance use in the Saanich Peninsula. Funds will be used to apply the art protocol developed by the W̱’SÁNEĆ Leadership Council, and install Indigenous art and signage in the Sencoten language in the clinic space.