Status of Women committee  I think there needs to be more education of front-line workers, and more money should be paid to them. It's like the family-school liaison counsellors in the schools. Even though they're first nations, they get paid very little--$30,000. So we don't get really good-quality counsellors for front-line workers.

Status of Women committee  For me the biggest gap seems to be in the spirit of healing counselling program I have. There's not enough funding for front-line workers to work directly with aboriginal people who are survivors of the residential schools. The Aboriginal Healing Foundation is slowing down now and closing things down, but we still have IAP clients who are coming to do their settlements.

Status of Women committee  Like I said before, the two issues that I think stem from residential schools--I have to agree with my colleagues--is that we have codependency issues. That means that here we have children in residential schools who were stripped of their identity, their culture, and their language.

Status of Women committee  We need to focus more on the healing aspect. I agree with having programs like this, province-wide. I'm glad you have one here. But we need to focus on the healing aspects so that aboriginal women and children, or whoever is being abused, can embrace their culture and who they are.

Status of Women committee  That's my job, hey? My name is Jo-Anne Hansen. I'm a registered social worker and I own a little company called The Spirit of Healing. I'm here to represent Little Warriors. Little Warriors is an organization that's pretty new, and it's to support victims of sexual abuse. I'm from northern Alberta.