About the LEGO SPIRIT (Supporting Play and Intergenerational Relationships with Indigenous Tradition) Project
Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health is honored to be a part of the LEGO Foundation’s Build a World of Play Challenge to support child development worldwide. Funding provided through this challenge will support the international sharing of the Family Spirit program as well as the development of intergenerational playspaces designed by and for Indigenous communities across the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Aotearoa (New Zealand).
Together we seek bold solutions to reclaim strong families and strong autonomous Indigenous communities.
To take this work around the globe, Family Spirit is partnering with three Indigenous-led organizations:
Canada
First Nations Health Authority
The First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) is the health and wellness partner to over 200 diverse First Nations communities and citizens across British Columbia (BC) in Canada. Since its establishment by BC First Nations in 2013, the FNHA has worked to transform and reform the way health care is delivered to First Nations in BC, and to undertake program and service delivery in a manner aligned with First Nations philosophies, perspectives and ways of being.
Australia
Batchelor Institute for Indigenous Tertiary Education
The Batchelor Institute is the only First Nations dual sector tertiary education provider in Australia. The Institute gives precedence to its philosophy of Both Ways: positioning First Nations peoples as knowledge holders in all educational transactions with Western knowledge systems as well as privileging First Nations ways of learning and teaching to underpin our engagement with mainstream education systems and society more broadly.
Aotearoa (New Zealand)
Te Rōpū Rangahau Hauora a Eru Pōmare
Te Rōpū Rangahau Hauora a Eru Pōmare (The Eru Pōmare Māori Health), University of Otago, strives to create a Kaupapa Māori space committed to improving Māori health outcomes and eliminating inequalities through quality science and ongoing theoretical development. It takes a rights-based approach consistent with the Treaty of Waitangi, and is engaged with community through a spectrum of influence from community development, policy advocacy, research dissemination and Māori health research workforce development.