The ministry promotes healthy Aboriginal communities through the Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Strategy.

Three symbols make up the Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Strategy logo. The turtle represents Turtle Island. This is Mother Earth. The people are holding hands. This means they will help each other with their problems. They are standing in a circle. This is the circle of life. The people are our friends, families and strangers — people who need our help or who are helping us.

The Strategy combines traditional and mainstream programs and services to help improve Aboriginal health and reduce family violence.

These community-based programs and services are available to Aboriginal people living on-reserve and in urban and rural communities. They include:

• community wellness programs
• Aboriginal Healthy Babies, Healthy Children Program
• counselling to address mental and emotional issues
• crisis intervention services
• healing lodges
• health care, health promotion and education
• shelters and safe houses for women escaping domestic violence and their children
• pre and post-natal care
• substance-abuse treatment centres.

The Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Strategy is a joint program between the Ontario government and First Nations and Aboriginal organizations. Five Ontario government ministries fund the strategy:

• Children and Youth Services
• Community and Social Services
• Health and Long-Term Care
• Aboriginal Affairs
• Ontario Women's Directorate

The success of the Strategy

Since it was launched in 1994, the strategy has had many successes both on and off reserve. It has:

• improved access to health care
• enhanced services to address family violence, and
• built the capacity of First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities within a holistic and culture-based framework.

In 2008/09, the strategy provided direct services to more than 42,000 clients. Over 450,000 community members took part in 17,971 community-based education and awareness activities sponsored by 360 projects.

Since its creation the strategy has:

• established a network of programs, including:
• ten Aboriginal Health Access Centres
• six healing lodges
• seven family shelters
• two family violence healing programs
• two outpatient hostels, and
• crisis intervention teams in 47 northern communities
• created more than 650 jobs and 460 community-based health and healing programs, and
• trained more than 1,000 staff yearly in health and social services.