Raymond Jordan Johnson-Brown
Belonging on Their Own Terms: Youth-Led Understandings of Identity and Mental Wellness for Indigenous Youth in Care
Indigenous children and youth who move through foster care, adoption or cross-cultural family systems may have limited opportunities to explain how they understand their own identities and relationships. Raymond’s research begins with their perspectives rather than assumptions made on their behalf.
In partnership with Tasiutigiit, an organization that supports Indigenous children and youth in care, the project explores identity, belonging and mental wellness through activities youth help shape. The intention is to make space for young people to tell their own stories and decide what matters to them.
Approach and methodology
Youth are invited to participate as co-creators, using storytelling, mapping, creative writing, photography and other activities they choose. The approach treats each young person as an active contributor to the questions, forms of expression and meaning that emerge from the work.
A toolkit is being co-created to help youth map their stories, relationships and sense of belonging. The research also plans an academic publication that can share learning with caregivers, social workers and mental health professionals.
Expected contribution
The planned toolkit and publication are intended to make youth-informed perspectives more accessible to adults and professionals involved in care. The project may also help strengthen understanding of the relationship between identity, belonging and mental wellness for Indigenous youth in care.
About the researcher
Raymond Jordan Johnson-Brown (they/he) describes themself as a “Two-Spirit, Ethnic Anomaly, and multi-hyphenate creative.” Their work spans social work, systems change and cultural practice. Over more than 15 years, they have worked across frontline care, research and efforts to change systems in health, education, child welfare and food systems.
Raymond has worked with organizations including Right to Food Canada, the Canadian Mental Health Association and the Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada. They are a research coordinator at McGill University focused on community-based research with marginalized populations in care settings, an equity integration specialist at CAMH and a student completing a joint master’s degree in social work and law at McGill. Their own experience growing up in foster care is an important motivation for this project.
