Cultural Safety Design Collaborative

The Cultural Safety Design Collaborative (CSDC) supports non-Indigenous health service delivery organizations across Canada to work alongside First Nations, Inuit and Métis to address systemic racism and improve cultural safety and quality healthcare.

About the collaborative 

The CSDC is a two-year quality improvement and patient safety initiative that brings together teams from across the country to develop and implement a project to address racism experienced by First Nations, Inuit and Métis in the health system and foster cultural safety. The collaborative was co-created with an advisory group of First Nations, Inuit and Métis and non-Indigenous health system leaders.

Through this collaborative, HEC supports organization-based teams and the patients, families and communities they serve to:

• Engage with the First Nations, Inuit and Métis patient community to develop meaningful, reciprocal relationships.
• Identify, develop and implement improvement projects to address racism experienced by First Nations, Inuit, and Métis and improve cultural safety and the healthcare system.
• Foster a shared learning network to help teams draw from existing evidence, tools and resources.

Organization-based teams will:

• Develop relationships with the First Nations, Inuit and Métis patients, families and communities who access care within their organization and collaboratively identify a priority area for change.
• Participate in learning and networking opportunities with program coaches, experienced faculty and peers.
• Receive up to $50,000 in seed funding from HEC and up to $83,000 from Indigenous Services Canada to support co-creating an improvement project to address racism and improve cultural safety according to an identified priority.
• Receive support through expert coaching, access to virtual learning and peer-to-peer networking opportunities, measurement and reporting support and access to resources, tools and evidence such as a Cultural Safety Resource Toolkit.

Guiding principles

All participating teams are guided by the principles developed by the CSDC Advisory Group. Teams will:

1. Create safe, ethical spaces for dialogue and learning, built on mutual trust and respect and ways of knowing.
2. Reflect a distinctions-based approach, which includes First Nations, Inuit and Métis individuals from urban Indigenous communities, such that everyone around the table has an equitable voice in any discussions.
3. Foster reciprocity in all relationships and listen to others in order to make decisions by consensus. 
4. Focus on the priorities identified by First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities accessing care at the health service delivery organization, centred on the needs of individuals, family, caregivers and community.
5. Share knowledge consistent with First Nations, Inuit and Métis data governance principles, such as:
   1. The First Nations Information Governance Centre’s principles of Ownership, Control, Access and Possession
   2. The Métis principles of Ownership, Control, Access and Stewardship
   3. Inuit research principles; (iv) Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit
   4. Other relevant data governance principles, as identified by HEC from time to time

Participating teams

Through this collaborative, HEC is supporting 11 teams across seven provinces and two territories. Learn more about who’s participating and where they’re located.

Meet the teams