‘This is what reconciliation looks like’: Peterborough’s new CHC focuses on Indigenous health

The Peterborough Community Health Centre was opened on Tuesday with the ceremonial cutting of three ribbons — representing Indigenous knowledge, western biological medicine, and the local community’s knowledge of its own needs — braided together.

Larger than a regular doctor’s office and smaller than a hospital, a Community Health Centre or CHC aims to merge primary care of the family doctor with a range of other services including counselling and health promotion programs, foot care, and even laundry.

CHCs typically prioritize serving populations that have historically received less care or that require particular cultural sensitivities. The goal at Peterborough’s centre is to serve Indigenous peoples, as well as people with disabilities, people living in poverty, and queer and trans people.

Peterborough’s CHC is funded by the province, but Peterborough Currents reported last year that funding was lower than what had been requested by local advocates in 2023.

“Health is more than an absence of illness,” executive director Ashley Safar said, and the centre is “more than a health care facility.”

While providing people with the primary care they need, the centre will also provide much-needed mental health care and wider community resources to address the social determinants of health – housing, food, poverty – in a context that is gender-inclusive and culturally safe.

“This is what reconciliation looks like,” board chair Jonathan Bennett said, pointing to the centrality of Indigenous and community engagement in the development of the centre.

The Centre is located on two floors of the Peterborough Square mall downtown. Safar pointed out that the facility would add 30 new jobs for skilled professionals, and would be a boon to the city’s struggling central core.

The opening ceremony attracted city officials and representatives of local community organizations, as well as curious onlookers, many of whom, statistically speaking, were unlikely to have a reliable primary care provider of their own.

The opening ceremonies underscored the importance of Indigenous cultural knowledge, with drumming and singing provided by Naandewegaan and a prayer, in both Anishnaabemowin and English, by Alderville First Nation elder Kathy McLeod Beaver.

CHCs are non-profit, and have a participatory model of governance, in which community members play key roles in shaping the organization.

Bennett noted that, while there are CHCs across Canada, every one of them is different, as they each form out of the social and cultural needs of their home communities.

The first CHC in Canada, Mount Carmel in Winnipeg, was founded in 1926 by Jewish community leaders to benefit new Canadians arriving in the city’s north end from Eastern Europe. It now, like Peterborough’s CHC, focuses its programming on supporting Indigenous families, reflecting the community’s changing needs.