We partnered with Délı̨nę Got’ı̨nę Government to deliver our Supporting Wellbeing training in Délı̨nę from March 17-21, 2025. Each fiscal year, Supporting Wellbeing has funding to deliver four free trainings—this was our fourth and final one for 2024-25!

Cole Hardisty and Rachel Cluderay facilitated the five-day training, covering all six Supporting Wellbeing modules. The eight participants were all Délı̨nę Got’ı̨nę Government staff with experience delivering on the land programming to their community. During the training we were treated to incredible meals made by Bernadette Yukon and Bonnie Koe. We were lucky to have Marie Speakman as the emotional support at this training. Marie is from Délı̨nę and is a member of the Indigenous Counselling cohort. We are also thankful to have had Wilbert Menacho from Tulít’a as another emotional support for learners.

Although the training took place in a boardroom, we made an effort to spend time on the Land in order to process the more emotionally challenging modules of Intergenerational Trauma—Moving Beyond to Resiliency and Suicide Intervention and Life Promotion. On Tuesday afternoon, we drove out on the ice road to Whiskeyjack and visited people’s camps. Thursday afternoon brought strong winds, so we listened to the Land and adapted our original plans for an outdoor cookout. Instead, Amanda Baton led us in an earring-making workshop, marking an excellent example of why flexibility is needed when working with the Land.

I plan to use this training to do community agreements, self-check ins, self care and aftercare follow ups.

Spending time together on the Land and sewing is important to our training. It allows people to become more comfortable with the group, and is an opportunity for the facilitators to become learners. This makes the training less hierarchical, breaks down barriers, and provides a safe and supportive space to process heavy topics.

This was Cole’s first time facilitating a Supporting Wellbeing training.  They became a Facilitator-in-Training after completing the Facilitator Training in Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ at the end of February. Rachel provided mentorship to Cole before, during, and after this Délı̨nę training to help improve their confidence with facilitating and ensure they were supported. Cole did an incredible job delivering the training, bringing positive energy and creativity, their flip-charts are on a whole new level!  We cannot wait to see them facilitating again.

We are truly grateful to our community partners, caterers, emotional support people, and everyone who helped make this training a success. Mahsi cho!