Grandmothers play key role helping families in North Central

Grandmothers, or kokums, are stepping up in Regina's North Central neighbourhood to provide help to the community.

"North Central needs to look at communication [and] how we treat one another," Brenda Dubois, who is a grandmother, told CBC News.

She added there are many examples of how, despite the challenges the community faces, people are looking out for one another. Dubois believes there are many who genuinely care about the situation.

"If somebody went through North Central and looked through the community with that lens, I think you'd have more pluses than negatives," she said.

It's about sharing our culture.- Chasity Delorme

Dubois, and other kokums, have banded together to help raise young children, whether or not they are related as biological grandmothers. They hope to provide healthy and positive environments for the youngsters.

The challenges are substantial and include overcrowded homes and homes where some parents are battling alcoholism or drug addictions. In some homes, the children's parents are not there, lost to murder or suicide.

Chasity Delorme is a student and single mother living in North Central. She finds comfort and support visiting kokum Lilly Daniels, a First Nations Elder who — like Dubois — wants to help the upcoming generations, including Delorme's three children.

The visits, Delorme says, are meaningful in many ways.

"That's something that's very important to a kokum," Delorme told CBC News. "It's about sharing our culture."

"There's a spirit that is attached to her teachings and there is a spirit attached to what she shares," Delorme added, talking about Daniels. "That is something that I value because it's something that you can't capture from any kind of academics or any kind of book."

Adopted kokums

Daniels is not directly related to Delorme's family, but they have adopted each other.

"Unfortunately some of our families are still healing from different types of trauma," Delorme said. "This is where the grandmothers have really taken that role as almost a natural parent, and raising their children."

Daniels told CBC News that the challenges of North Central, including poverty, drugs and violence, have taken a toll on the children.

''It's harder for me too because I suffer for them," Daniels said. "For the ones that are still suffering. When I come home at night, I suffer for them because I have to pray for them."

Dubois added that much of what is going on in North Central, that is negative, is part of the legacy of broken families.

"It's coming out through addictions and through violence," she said. "And I think a part of it is how we admit our truths and start parenting our children."  

The time and energy the kokums are giving is welcome at places like the North Central Family Centre. The centre runs and after-school program for hundreds of youngsters and the involvement of kokums is viewed as crucial.

"I think it's breaking the cycle and it's the wisdom that they have and the experience that they can bring," Sandy Wankel, the centre's executive director, told CBC News.