for Two-Spirit, LGBTQIA+ and Neurodivergent individuals

As registered social workers, we understand that colonial worldviews have shaped social work’s processes, frameworks and approaches that have actively silenced intergenerational knowledge and differing worldviews. Because of these unexamined racist and colonial roots, social workers can be tools to promote White European worldviews being forcibly applied to individual and community wellbeing. We have lost many invaluable teachings and experiences from Two-Spirit/Indigequeer, Black and other racialized leaders; we have lost our connection to land, language, and culture deemed “unhealthy” or “harmful”; we have separated and under-resourced families and communities; and we see realities like the under and misdiagnoses and over-representation of Indigenous and Black people in our child welfare and prison systems. Despite this continuous stress and violence, Indigenous, Black and racialized peoples continue to resist assimilation, have found ways to thrive and reclaim nearly lost traditions and cultures, while taking up their rightful place in society as leaders of social change and caretakers of the land.

At Out of the Box Counselling & Collaborations, we believe that healing means actively standing against oppressive systems and processes like racism and colonialism. We are committed to changing the collective unwillingness to recognize historical and ongoing violence within our communities and the field of social work. We believe this change begins in our own self-reflection and unlearning of harmful beliefs, attitudes and behaviours connected to racism and colonialism. We believe this change also requires our active support of Black, Indigenous and racialized people’s reclamation of power and leadership. We stand in solidarity with land and water defenders calling for collective liberation, Indigenous sovereignty, stopping non-consultative land development, and the return of land to its original caretakers. We believe systemic change is the only way towards deep wellbeing for us as individuals and our communities. Putting these values into action is an ongoing and continuous learning process for us. We ask that you, our community, hold us accountable to our commitments to decolonization, anti-racism, anti-ableism and pushing back against all forms of oppression that impact the wellbeing of ourselves and our communities. Through this active process, we seek to step into collective values of equity, honesty and justice.