2024 Our Children Our Way National Conference

Save the Dates in 2024! https://ourchildrenourway.ca/ocow2024/

In 2023 the Our Children Our Way Society welcomed 1,100 delegates to the second annual Our Children Our Way National Conference held from October 16-18 at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) Territory on Turtle Island aka Vancouver, BC, Canada. Highlights from the 2023 conference can be found on our YouTube Channel.

The conference will once again provide a space for collaboration, relationship building, and knowledge exchange among Indigenous child and family service providers and communities. Presenters will provide breakout sessions focused on five key areas: best practice; policy; community healing; operational development; and jurisdictional pathways. Plenary panels will focus on preserving cultural identity for children in care, and on healing in, speaking out and speaking up.

Jennifer Chuckry, Executive Director of the Our Children Our Way Society Secretariat, invites delegates to “come together to connect with our hearts on behalf of our children, youth, young adults and families.”

Mary Teegee, Chair of the Our Children Our Way Society, says of delegates … “you already have within you the tools you need—compassion, Indigenous emotional intelligence, Indigenous ways of being and knowing, resilience, spirituality, humour, and the guidance of our ancestors to do this work. With these gifts, we are privileged and honoured because we have the capacity to bring real change and to make our children’s lives better.”

Registration for the third annual conference will open in April/May 2024 and we encourage people to secure their accommodation as early as possible. Some of the nearby hotels offer a First Nations or Indigenous rate for group bookings.

We look forward to welcoming delegates, colleagues, friends and relatives again in 2024!