Kahnawake Shakotiia’takehnhas (they help them) Community Services (KSCS) mission is “to encourage and support a healthy lifestyle by engaging with community through activities that strengthen our KSCS values of peace, respect and responsibility with the collaboration of all organizations of Kahnawà:ke.” KSCS is a Kanien’keha:ka (Mohawk) health and social service organization that provides services to Kahnawa’kehró:non (the people of Kahnawake) and is located within the Kanien’keha:ka territory of Kahnawake on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, approximately twenty minutes from downtown Montreal, Québec. KSCS was formed and established in 1988 and currently provides Kahnawa’kehró:non health and social services programs/services on a continuum of care through five distinct community service areas: Prevention Services (Primary and Secondary Services); Support Services (Youth Protection, Addiction Response, Foster Care & Psychological Services); Assisted Living Services (elders and special people); Home and Community Care (adult and elders); and Environmental Health Services. KSCS also has services in place that provides support to the service delivery teams and they are: Financial Services, Human Resources, Administration, Communications, Information Technology, Strategic Development, Facilities Management and Data & Research. KSCS currently employs approximately 300 staff (FT, PT and Contract). In the last two years, the organization has grown exponentially to meet the needs of the community and as a result, it’s been recognized there has been increased demand/need for improved and consistent engagement with community and our partners to ensure we meet the needs. Information about KSCS can be found on our website www.kscs.ca, along with information about our 2023- 2028 Strategic Plan in which this project stems from.
The proposed project stems from the Kahnawake Shakotiia’takehnhas Community Services 2023-2028 Strategic Plan. It was identified that a Key Priority to work on is Community Engagement and Partnerships. It was identified in our evaluation of our previous Strategic Plan that we cannot do this work alone and requires support and collaboration from all areas. The specific goal is to “Continuously expand and strengthen productive partnerships within our teams, community and other allies by implementing a proactive approach that includes targeted outreach and collaboration as a critical process towards the enhancement of our programs and services.” More specifically the RFP for this project is looking “to assess the strength of all of our internal and external partners.”
KSCS ultimately wants to help empower community individuals and families to take control of their lives and one of the means to accomplishing this is to enhance community engagement and partnerships. This will require several steps, and the Action Team would like to focus first and foremost with the evaluation of the partnerships currently in place. By consulting and evaluating the partnerships, we look forward to a final report that will include and inform the Action Team of the following:
• Quality of the partnerships/relationships that KSCS has
• Evaluation of current processes used
• Which partnerships KSCS should focus on improving / enhancing • Processes & procedures to keep strengthening partnerships at the forefront of KSCS operations.
• Improvement and expansion on the following:
- Cultural safety / build community awareness
- Client service and accessibility
- The sharing of information between all levels within the organization
- The consistent flow of information sharing and engagement with and between community and partners (local, regional and provincial)
