Health Navigation

There is important work that needs to be done to address racism in healthcare and ensure that Indigenous people can access their right to healthcare with dignity and respect. The goals of the Urban Indigenous Health Navigation Program are:

1. To enhance health support capacity in Friendship Centres
2. Fund health navigators placed in Friendship Centres and other urban Indigenous organizations as a harm reduction measure while continuing to work on systemic change.
3. Support existing Health Navigation policy work at Friendship Centres such as urban Indigenous health frameworks.

• All NAFC-member Friendship Centres and Provincial / Territorial Associations are eligible to apply for a health navigator project.
• Project activities support patient advocates, health system navigators and cultural safety training for medical professionals.
• Must be able to show how the project will work towards achieving the following outcomes:
• Increasing the safety and accessibility of health services for Indigenous people
• Helping to facilitate equitable access to healthcare services for Indigenous people; and/or
• Ensuring that Indigenous people can access hospitals and healthcare systems in a culturally safer manner.
• Friendship Centres and Territorial Associations are eligible to apply for up to $200,000 to support an existing Health Navigator project.

• PTAs can apply on behalf of a Friendship Centre or a group of Friendship Centres in their region. For example, a PTA can submit a proposal on behalf of a Friendship Centre that is looking to expand a health navigation project. Alternatively, a PTA can submit a proposal for a wider-scale project on behalf of a group of Friendship Centres in the same region.

Eligible expenses include but are not limited to:

• Overhead costs: including costs related to central administrative functions of the recipient organization that are drawn upon to support agreement activities (such as shared postage, telephones, information technology maintenance and head office support).
• Materials & supplies: the cost of materials and supplies such as printing and communication costs
• Staff capacity and training: wages and mandatory employment-related costs: staff training and professional development

• Professional fees: such as research, audit, legal, assessment and evaluation, consultants, IT technical expertise, facilitation.
• Other costs: costs necessary to support project implementation such as events and stakeholder meetings, and activities related to community engagement and donor cultivation.

• Capital costs for the construction of a building or the purchase of land or buildings are not eligible.

From Wednesday, May 24^th to Wednesday, June 7^th, the NAFC will hold a call for proposals to release Health Navigator Program funds to Friendship Centres. Health Navigator projects can run until March 2024 with possible flexibility.

Applications will be open from Wednesday, May 24^th until Wednesday, June 7^th, 2023, at 11:59PM EST.

Applicants should expect to receive a decision two weeks after the application deadline.

• Projects should start no later than July 1st, 2023, and should be complete by the end of fiscal 2023-24. There may be some flexibility in carrying over funding into the next fiscal year, but this is not guaranteed.

Health Navigator Program Briefing Note