Project 461056

This proposal was co-developed by Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders, clinicians, and scholars who have lived experience and specialization in engagement, disability, and mental health. Consistent with the CIHR Institute of Indigenous Peoples' Health (IIPH), our proposal includes Indigenous peoples as principal knowledge user, knowledge users, collaborators, meeting participants, presenters, and leaders on the project. The proposed meeting will allow Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners to work together to fill gaps in knowledge of neurodevelopmental disabilities and mental health in Indigenous communities, an area that has not yet received adequate attention in Ontario (or Canada). The proposed meeting will allow the team to determine culturally informed research goals that adhere to TCPS-2 Chapter 9: Research Involving the First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples of Canada, and the First Nations Principles of Ownership, Control, Access and Possession (OCAP™). Indigenous perspectives of disability will be respected and incorporated. This meeting will bring together people that would not otherwise meet and is a necessary first step to form a provincial and national network of invested partners to share knowledge, build on that knowledge, and improve on that knowledge through determining a culturally informed research agenda for future grant applications.