At the Indigenous Children’s Mentoring Society (ICMS), they are strong believers in the ability of youth to succeed. Their programming and activities are designed to help youth reach their goals and fulfill their highest potential. They are proud of all their children, and love watching them grow into bright-minded and confident individuals.
Their mission objective is to restore healthy relationships through quality matchmaking mentee/mentor relationships in indigenous communities by implementing a Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring style approach into every indigenous community across the country including Metis settlements.
Founder of ICMS, Steve Morin, was born to a single mother on Enoch Cree Nation, the third oldest of four siblings. His family has experienced five generations of government interference; his mother, grandmother, great grandmother and great-great-grandmother were all involved in either the foster-care or residential-school systems.
His early childhood was turbulent; his biological mother had her own trauma from her time in the foster-care system. She became overwhelmed by child-rearing when he was four and decided it was best if Morin lived under government care. He was taken and placed in a foster home in Edmonton, where he says he suffered extensive abuse.
Today, Morin is still on his healing journey and working to challenge inadequacies in the child welfare system. In addition to running ICMS, he is also the founder of Breaking the Chains, an organization to help survivors of abuse and intergenerational trauma. “There’s a lot of children in our communities that are plagued by intergenerational trauma. For me, as an Indigenous person, I can help. I always had this feeling that I was meant to do something better … I really want to try and get other people to start speaking about things. And to start healing.”” Morin says.
As a relatively new non-profit organization with big goals, ERA strives to help amazing organizations like ICMS with their tech needs so that they can focus on the real work of positively influencing the youth and being a stable, trusted force in their life. We were delighted to be able to help by donating a computer, laptop, printer and projector for office use.