Ode Zhigo Ode (Heart to Heart) is a five-year community-driven, youth-led and research-based project that focuses on teens creating healthy relationships with themselves and one another.
About Heart to Heart
Ode zhigo Ode (Heart to Heart) is a five-year community-driven and research-based project that focuses on creating a healthy relationships curriculum from an Indigenous-designed lens. There are four major components to our project:
- A youth-led Indigenous designed curriculum.
- Engaged Youth Advisory Council.
- Community care and connection to community.
- In the final year knowledge dissemination to the community.

Where Are We Based
The curriculum will be based out of the City of Winnipeg. Having the highest percentage of Indigenous peoples living within its borders, Winnipeg has always been the center of settler-colonialism, and as a result, the Indigenous people living in or near the city experience higher rates of gender-based violence and other forms of colonialism.
Contact UsWho We Help
The Heart to Heart project seeks to connect Indigenous youth aged 16-21 in having healthy relationships.
Our project partners are staff of Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata, staff of Ndinawemaaganag Endaawaad Inc, the Youth Advisory Council, Community Elders and Knowledge Keepers and The University of Manitoba. It is the primary focus of our project to include the youth perspective throughout the process – all the way from the development of teams to the creation and implementation of the curriculum and its delivery.
Our Mission
We hope to bring resources to the community that allow for Indigenous youth to create, uphold and promote healthy relationships with one another so that they can persevere in society. It is imperative that we highly consider the voices and perspectives of youth, as they are the ones who have lived-experience regarding the dynamics of teen relationships.
From October 2018 to March 2023.