About the Cultural Safety Grants program

The BCCFP is committed to advocating for culturally safe health care and demonstrating anti-racist approaches to address health equity.

As part of this work, we have launched a Cultural Safety and Humility Grants Program (CS&H Grants) 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.

Up to seven grants of $5,000 each will be awarded to successful applicants. Individual BCCFP members in good standing are eligible to apply.

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

Assist family physicians in engaging and developing relationships with First Nations and Indigenous people within their communities.
Embed 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.

May 2023 update: second round of CS&H grants

Our latest call for project proposals closed on January 19, 2023. The BCCFP’s Cultural Safety & Humility Working Group subsequently selected seven grant recipients to receive $5000 each, listed below. We thank all those who applied.

1. Journey Home Project: Knowledge translation for the next generation of Palliative Care Providers – Saanich
A project to work together with members of the W̱SÁNEĆ Nation community, to share lessons and learnings from the palliative care Journey Home Project (JHP film project) with non-Indigenous providers at Saanich Peninsula Hospital and surrounding community practices, through the creation and dissemination of a toolkit for Palliative Care/Journey Home Care Providers, including Indigenous-specific resources for providing care. The project also illuminates palliative care as a specialty practice amongst family physicians.

2. St. Paul’s Hospital Perinatal Substance Use Program – Vancouver
A jointly funded project to work together with community partners at Kilala Lelum Urban Indigenous Health Centre and members of the Indigenous Wellness team at St. Paul’s Hospital to:

hold a half-day collaborative workshop to discuss Indigenous teaching around pregnancy, birth and postpartum care and best practices and recommendations for improvements in care of maternity patients affected by substance use; and
create a follow-up report intended to guide service development and delivery of a new specialized perinatal program at St. Paul’s Hospital.

5. Continuation of the PG cultural humility and competency working group – Prince George
A project to continue the excellent work and goals of the well-established Cultural Safety Working Group, including: the creation of a patient feedback pamphlet for the ER; compensating community Elders for attendance at ongoing working group meetings during the funding period; and holding an unveiling ceremony for artwork that has been created for the ER in Prince George.

4. A place of welcome: expressing care, safety and humility through patient intake forms – Surrey-Langley
A collaborative project to incorporate cultural safety and humility principles into redrafted patient intake forms and processes in Fraser Health.

5. Cowichan Maternity Clinic Indigenous Reconnection & Primary Care Network Priority Attachment – Duncan
A jointly funded project to better integrate local maternity care services with Indigenous patient needs and improve attachments to primary care for pregnant/newborn Indigenous families, through a collaborative consultation and reporting process.

6. Integrated locally planned cultural safety KAIROS blanket exercise – Lillooet
A jointly funded project to deliver the KAIROS blanket exercise course in collaboration with local Tit’qet leaders and Elders, to introduce concepts around cultural safety and humility to local primary care providers in Lillooet.

7. Cowichan District Hospital Emergency Department Cultural Humility Learning and Development Plan Community Engagement Project – Duncan
A jointly funded project to co-create a Cultural Humility Learning and Development Plan for the ER in collaboration with local Quw’utsun leaders and Elders.

Update on the first round of projects

Here are the projects completed in July 2022:

Maternal care for the vulnerable (Chetwynd)
Traditional medicine workshop (Victoria)
Cultural safety and medication (Courtenay)
Bringing cultural recognition through art (Penticton)
ER triage video (Prince George)
Public-facing W̱SÁNEĆ art at a local community health centre (Victoria)