About Us

The Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre was established in 1984 by the
Aboriginal community to serve the Aboriginal community living in
Winnipeg.

Since that time, we have worked to support families to better
care for children by creating meaningful opportunities for
community and family involvement.

By focusing on the positives and building on individual
strengths, we continue to help families learn and grow stronger
together.

Ma Mawi’s philosophy is rooted in the belief that the entire
community has responsibility for the healthy development of
future generations.

We follow the principles within our name, “we all work together
to help one another”. As such, a commitment to the growth and
development of the Aboriginal community underlies all of our
program and service activities.

The direction of our centre is guided based on the following:

Focus on building healthy communities.

Facilitate greater involvement of the community through
various economic and social opportunities.

Strengthen community capacity by transferring skills
and opportunities to address those factors that affect
the health of our community and its families.

Facilitate partnerships within neighbourhoods to
ensure that support is focusing on community
members helping each other.

Facilitate the development of the Aboriginal community
through opportunities to learn from one another,
collectively address local issues and build community
capacity to support each other.

To work in close collaboration with the community to
develop and maintain preventative services for
Aboriginal children and families.

To use a community development and capacity building
approach within neighbourhood based sites.

Continue to maintain strong partnerships with private,
public and government stakeholders.

As a community based organization, Ma Mawi
provides culturally relevant prevention and support
based programs and services to the Aboriginal
community. With a focus on understanding and
working directly with the community that we serve, Ma
Mawi is uniquely situated to create local solutions that
will ensure personal, family and community well-being.

In the true spirit of our name, Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata,
“we all work together to help one another,” we are
achieving healthy, happy children, families and
neighborhoods.

Walking our talk. Slowly but surely Ma Mawi continues
to find ways to walk our talk when it comes to returning
the authority and responsibility for self-care and
community wellness back to the community we
support.

This year, the community continued to experience
commitment from all levels to supporting the positive
growth and development of families. Time and again,
caring individuals, families, youth, service providers
and funders have come together to share their
dreams and aspirations for healthy families and
healthy communities.

Truly, we are just beginning to see the tremendous
potential of real and lasting partnerships. And when
we move our words to action, the synergy we create as
a community is remarkable. Working together, Ma
Mawi and our many partners will continue to journey
down the path of becoming a community that “works
together to help one another”.

Take a peek at the many partnerships that exist in
Winnipeg’s Aboriginal Community for the benefit of
children, youth, and families:

Community Partnerships in Action