HIR Wellness Institute

24/07/2025

Dear Relatives,

June was an incredible month of healing, connection, and culture in Gatherers of Tradition! Our Gatherers of Tradition: Youth Mental Health Day Camp allows our youth to learn more about culture as medicine, develop healthy coping skills, create community, increase their self-esteem, promote self-advocacy, and more!

If you’re a young person looking for connection or a community member with a young relative who could thrive here, there’s a place for you. Please reach out to us!

Swipe through these pictures to see some of the moments we shared!

In Community,
HIR Wellness Institute

Funded by City of Milwaukee Office of Community Wellness and Safety

24/07/2025

Dear Relatives,

Today, we celebrate Thresa, our incredible Lead Native American Victim Advocate, on her 5-year anniversary with HIR Wellness Institute!

For the past five years, Thersa has used her warm and warrior spirit to support and advocate for our relatives and community. She has fostered deep connections, creating safe spaces for our relatives to feel seen and heard. Thresa is constantly going above and beyond to ensure our relatives are treated with the dignity and respect we all deserve as human beings.

Thresa walks with bravery and deep cultural roots, bringing abundant love to everything she does. We are grateful for her presence, wisdom, and dedication.

Thresa, we honor you and joyfully celebrate this milestone with you!

In community,
The HIR Wellness Institute Team

24/07/2025

HIR Wellness Institute R&R - Reflections & Resiliency

Welcome relatives we are so glad you are here to reflect and find some inner peace. Join us as we breathe, stretch, and share in the energy together.

As we continue to serve victims of crime with virtual services, we want to hear from you. Please take a few moments to complete our Community Survey
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MHBZX57 to help inform how we can best serve our relatives.

Together we can identify the need and create social justice action around much needed services and resources to those who need it most.

23/07/2025

Join us for our Wednesdays Live with Alexis, CAM™ Outreach and Education Coordinator, as she offers our relatives opportunities to support us with our current needs.

22/07/2025

Dear Relatives,

June was an amazing first month in this season of Story Menders™, in the 2025 Summer of Healing! In Story Menders™, young relatives learn positive coping skills, take healthy risks, and heal through this tabletop role-play therapy-based group, all while navigating the world of Cahokia in the Indigenously designed game Coyote & Crow. Story Menders™ is a space where youth can safely process, create, and connect in community.

If you’re a young person seeking belonging, or you know a youth who would thrive in a healing-centered, culturally grounded space like this, we’d love to connect with you. There’s a seat for you at our game table!

Swipe through to see our June memories of Story Menders™.

In Community,
HIR Wellness Institute

Funded by the City of Milwaukee Office of Community Wellness and Safety

22/07/2025

Dear Relatives,

On the third and final day of the Healing Together Conference, our team focused on helping relatives close out their experience in meaningful and supportive ways. Relatives had the one final opportunity to complete their CAMPsite(TM) experience, if they had not gotten the opportunity to do so. Throughout the conference, relatives took time to add to our Community Art canvas entitled "Healing Together," in which they were invited to add their voice and leave their mark on what "Healing Together" means to them. At the end of the conference, our team gifted this Canvas to White Bison, this year's host, as a remembrance of community voices from the 2025 Healing Together Conference.

We are deeply grateful for the opportunity to attend the Healing Together Conference for a third consecutive year to mobilize a CAMPsite(TM) for mental health support during the duration of the conference. Thank you to all Healing Together Conference organizers for another year of bringing our communities together for collective healing. We also extend heartfelt thank you to White Bison, serving as this years CAMPsite(TM) Sponsor, and for ensuring that conference attendees had culturally respectful, trauma and healing informed mental health support.

It was an honor to walk alongside relatives in this sacred space of healing, connection, and community, and we look forward to continuing this important work together!

In community,
HIR Wellness Institute

21/07/2025

Dear Relatives,

During the Daughters Of Tradition time at the United Nations Headquarters in New York last week, the girls had the privilege of being interviewed by Brianna Rowe, Associate TV and Video producer at the United Nations!

In preparation for their visit, the girls focused on studying seven of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs), and gaining a greater understanding of how focusing on these seven goals can impact the next seven generations.

The seven SDGs that the girls focused on were:

#3: Good Health and Wellbeing
#5: Gender Equality
#8: Decent work and economic growth
#13: Climate Action
#14: Life below water
#15: Life on Land
#16: Peace, justice and strong institutions

The girls were able to share about the importance of the seven chosen SDGs, their personal stories and their hope for the future.

To hear more about their experience, click the interview link below!

https://youtu.be/WFqulKjREos

In Community,
HIR Wellness Institute

A group of Indigenous youth from the United States visit the United Nations Headquarters in New York, wearing handmade ribbon skirts and vests featuring seve...

18/07/2025

Dear Relatives,

We are tremendously proud of our Daughters of Tradtion girls for bringing their voices, culture and leadership, to the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.

This week, our girls had the privilege of being
Highlighted in the United Nations News for their visit to the UNHQ.

Our girls had the opportunity to meet this years Nelson Mandela Awardee, Ms. Brenda Reynolds, and UN Senior Social Affairs Officer, Ms. Mirian Masaquiza Jerez, to share about the the seven chosen Sustainable Development goals and their importance. These dignitaries also offered words of encouragement and inspiration to our youth.

To learn more, click the link listed below to read the written article!

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/07/1165421

Please join us in celebrating this remarkable moment for our DOT girls!

In community,
The HIR Wellness Institute

A group of Indigenous youth from the United States, some as young as seven, visited the United Nations Headquarters in New York this week for the first time.