Optimizing the Health of Indigenous Infants and Toddlers: Identification of Community Strengths, Needs and Priorities to Promote Early Childhood Development through Healthy, Gender Diverse Parenting.

This Community Gathering will bring together the urban Indigenous community in Hamilton, Ontario to identify and prioritize research projects about the health of Indigenous parents and their infants and toddlers. The period of early childhood is very important to growth and development, and children who experience challenges during this time may go on to have poorer health and success as adults. Parents are responsible for meeting their child's needs and they must have the resources and skills they need to provide for their children. This Community Gathering will bring together parents of various identities (including mothers, fathers, adoptive parents, two-spirit parents and other gender-diverse parents), Indigenous leaders and health providers as well as Elders and Knowledge Holders to discuss the strengths, challenges and gaps related to healthy parenting and the early childhood development of young children in Hamilton. Through this Community Gathering we will (a) learn about healthy, gender-diverse parenting models and roles to promote healthy early childhood development and positive parent-child-community relationships; (b) strengthen partnerships and build relationships among Indigenous community members, organizations and researchers; and (c) inform a research proposal created together with members of the Hamilton Indigenous community to submit to a research grant competition. The proposed Community Gathering clearly aligns with the objectives of the CIHR funding opportunity, including: establishing priorities for an Indigenous-led research project related to optimizing child health and wellness through gender-diverse parenting, facilitating relationship building among Indigenous community members and researchers, and knowledge sharing on parenting from Indigenous Elders, Knowledge Holders and community members.