Healing Journey Overview

One of MIWRC's longest continuously-funded direct service programs, Healing Journey is a peer-led support program for adult American Indian women aged 22 and older who are challenged by chronic mental health, substance abuse, and trauma histories. The Healing Journey program utilizes harm reduction strategies and the Ojibwe teaching "zhoo-way-nah-dig" ("taking care of each other") to provide safe space and time for women to walk their own healing path at their own pace. This model operates from cultural teachings that prioritize the process of working toward a life "in balance" over linear markers of success, such as total abstention from substance use, while connecting women with a support system of staff and peers who view them as vital, contributing community members regardless of their past or current struggles.