This Initiative focuses on four colonized countries that are now called Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States. A talented team of Native, First Nations, Māori, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples leads our collective work. 

The collaboration emerged from our shared commitment to: 

• Support initiatives to protect and expand Indigenous sovereignty and self-governance; 
• Strengthen the capacity of Indigenous-led organizations to engage disconnected members of their community in ways that give them more agency as individuals and collective power as a group; and,
• Engage a critical mass of non-Indigenous people and organizations in understanding the impact of colonization, their ongoing complicity in its legacy, and the ways in which they can become partners in creating an equitable future.

The IAF Northwest Health Equity Organizing initiative works with health clinics, residency
programs, and students to use community organizing tools and practices to address the social
determinants of health - the conditions in our community where we work, live, and play,
that have been demonstrated to influence our health far more than medical care.  There is
immense interest within the healthcare world to address the social determinants, but direct
services to individual patients (e.g., housing referrals, food vouchers, resume workshops) are not enough to address community-level issues like unstable housing, food insecurity, unemployment. To build the power to address social determinants we need to organize.

We support our affiliates in researching issue areas affecting their regions, and sharing solutions with each other.

Examples: