Atlohsa Family Healing Services

Crisis Line Toll Free: 1-800-605-7477 Atlohsa provides programming and services to aid with healing and recovery from the effects of family violence through protection, support and education. The core of Atlohsa’s mandate is the understanding that family violence is not traditional in First Nations cultures, but a result of colonialism and intergenerational trauma. "We're trying to re-strengthen the fabrics that exist within the makeup of a family unit and extended family unit. If we can do that, and our belief and our mandate is to do that, that will then create a healthier community, an Indigenous community but a community at large, also." - Raymond Deleary, Executive Director, Atlohsa Native Family Healing Services Inc. Atlohsa was founded in 1986 as an outgrowth of a Needs Assessment Survey, which indicated a severe need for family violence services catered specifically to First Nations communities to promote the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs of First Nations women, men and children. A follow-up survey in 1991 revealed that 90% of First Nations women had been physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually abused by former or current partners. 63% were still being abused at that time. Today, Indigenous women in Canada are 2.5 times more likely than non-Indigenous women to be victims of violence and six times more likely to be killed than non-Indigenous women.