Support When You Need It Most: 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations

The Toronto Community Crisis Service (TCCS) provides free, confidential, in-person mental health supports city-wide from mobile crisis worker teams. TCCS supports Toronto residents 16 years of age or older and is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Join this session to learn more about the city-wide expansion and 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations.

The Toronto Community Crisis Service (TCCS) is a new, alternate approach to responding to someone in crisis that focuses on health, prevention and well-being. The service provides an alternative to police enforcement, creating a community-based, client centred, trauma-informed response to non-emergency crisis calls and wellness checks. This service aims to respond to the needs and desires of the communities most impacted by policing and establish trust and confidence in a new community-based response model.

Kamaamwizme wii Naagidiwendiiying – “Coming together to (heal or look after or to take care of) each other,” the Indigenous led Crisis Response Pilot is led by 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations in partnership with ENAGB and PQWCHC. The Indigenous led crisis response team responds to mental health related crisis and wellness checks for individuals located within Division 14.

Kamaamwizme wii Naagidiwendiiying is rooted in community, it is relational, trauma informed, non-aggressive, and aims to always centre the individual in our approach to supporting their wholistic health and wellness. Culture and traditional ways of being are fundamental to supporting community. Our approach is flexible and responsive to the varying needs of people in crisis and those around them.

This service is connected to municipal services like 911 and 211 and works from a multiple access point approach.

Our Presenter:

Taryn Anderson (she/her) is Community Resource Specialist, 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations with the Toronto Community Crisis Service