{"id":83509,"date":"2024-09-23T12:35:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T16:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/?p=83509"},"modified":"2024-10-08T08:19:30","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T12:19:30","slug":"more-than-a-shirt-orange-shirts-support-healing-and-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/healthy-tomorrows\/more-than-a-shirt-orange-shirts-support-healing-and-community\/","title":{"rendered":"More than a shirt: Orange shirts support healing and community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Diamond Phoenix Creations owner Pamela Meness, with son Phoenix Meness-King, says her business has become a way to give back to the community she loves.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Pamela Meness of Diamond Phoenix Creations, a First Nation-owned design and silk-screening business based in Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, says working with non-Indigenous organizations like The Ottawa Hospital is helping her realize her dream to support her community by providing her with the financial capability to create job opportunities and safe spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pamela started the business to support her family nine years ago, but it has become a way to give back to the community she loves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI always wanted to be a social worker and I went off to college and went off to university, but for whatever reason, that just never happened,\u201d says Pamela. \u201cNow through my business, I feel like I\u2019m able to do that same line of work and help within my community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the second year The Ottawa Hospital is working with Pamela to supply Every Child Matters orange t-shirts for our staff to order. Diamond Phoenix Creations also supplies orange shirts for The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre, Nepean High School and Carleton University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing grassroots support within the community<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Pamela prioritizes hiring within Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg and providing opportunities to people with perceived barriers. She recognizes an employee\u2019s personal situation, whether they are neurodivergent or a single parent lacking a support system, requires empathy over a hard line. \u201cSometimes it seems like there are excuses that are going on because people didn\u2019t come into work, but I know our people are dealing with a lot more traumas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pamela recently extended her grassroots work beyond her business, hosting the first Mama Bear Pride Land Based Healing Event, a weekend camp for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth and their families in June. It included sessions with guest speakers Dr. James Makokis, who won season 7 of The Amazing Race Canada<\/em> with his husband Anthony Johnson, and his mother, educator Patricia Makokis. A Cree two-spirit physician, Dr. Makokis is renowned internationally for his work with transgender youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advice for finding a supplier<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Pamela recommends that non-Indigenous organizations looking for a supplier go beyond ensuring the business is legitimately Indigenous and ask how it recognizes the artists and Elders it may work with and how it supports First Nation, Inuit or M\u00e9tis communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that everybody in our communities is always looking at \u2018How do we make things better?\u2019 When we look at an orange t-shirt, I can guarantee you we probably give $15 back to the community, even though we only made $5, whether it\u2019s through one way or another.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about Diamond Phoenix Creations<\/a> and Mama Bear Pride<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About The Ottawa Hospital\u2019s journey of reconciliation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Ottawa Hospital is working with First Nation, Inuit and M\u00e9tis partners to better ensure all campuses are safe, welcoming and reflective of the people and territories we serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resources for Indigenous patients and families<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indigenous partnerships and The Ottawa Hospital\u2019s journey of reconciliation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pamela Meness, owner of Diamond Phoenix Creations, the Kitigan Zibi-based supplier of The Ottawa Hospital\u2019s Every Child Matters orange t-shirts, says her business is about healing and community. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":83525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[177,424,404],"class_list":["post-83509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthy-tomorrows","tag-community-engagement","tag-indigenous-health","tag-working-together"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}