Greetings, it is an honour to share with you what has been happening in our community since National Addictions Awareness Week.

This year N.A.A.W. was included in a campaign called Spirit of Wellness here in Kahnawake. The Spirit of Wellness, is an initiative that runs for the entire year and starts over each November. When N.A.AW. First came to our community back in 1987, we found that a week was not enough time to host and run all our events. At that time we took the whole month of November to host our activities. Four years ago, we again re-developed this campaign to encompass the whole year.

Since November, another Spirit of Wellness event that was organized was a communal skating party as part of our Winter Carnival. On February 13th, 178 Community members came out for this event. All enjoyed a good time, several door prizes were given out and food for the event was sponsored in part by our Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative.

We are now in the planning stage for next years Spirit of Wellness here in Kahnawake.

Our youth role model, Angel Kawenni:io Robertson has been busy, keeping up her grades in school and taking part in regular activities with Our Gang, her after school program.

At Kahnawake Shakotiia’takenhas Community Services, our Additions Response Team (ARS) has this update to share:

It has been identified that it is difficult to get adequate training in English here in Quebec for students wanting to work in addictions counselling with English speaking clients. To assist future addictions workers, we have an “Open Mind” selection process that is receptive for students who want to have a stage with our ARS Team. Currently, there is a student from Canadore College taking this opportunity and there are plans for another student from McGill University’s School of social work to join us in September.

This is one way in that our ARS Team is tackling the problems head on to best serve our community.

Chad Katsenhake:ron Diabo
Spirit of Wellness Coordinator 2009
Kahnawake Shakotiia’takenhas Community Services