Weeneebayko Health Education Campus

The Weeneebayko Area Health Authority (WAHA) and Queen’s University are partnering on the creation of the Weeneebayko Health Education Campus with the support of more than $31 million from Mastercard Foundation.

We aim to develop a campus for health professions training in the Western James Bay region. The university programs offered will prepare Indigenous students from local communities for careers in medicine, nursing, midwifery, and other health professions.

Enrollment could start as early as September 2025 with an ultimate class size of 60 students across the health professions.

Indigenous Health Transformation
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Curriculum and Mentorship Watch video →	Health Career Pathways Watch video →	Training Indigenous Youth Watch video →	Indigenous Representation and Reconciliation Watch video →

Our vision

A unique campus, based in Moosonee, Ontario, where training and clinical care is delivered across the communities within WAHA.
Training aimed at building homegrown, comprehensive, sustainable, community-centred healthcare.
Training programs where graduates are prepared for and recruited into practice locally.
Engagement with youth early in their education with supports and resources that enable them to envision, pursue, and succeed in health professions training.
Education that supports health transformation – improving regional health outcomes, addressing delivery gaps in delivery, and building Indigenous representation.

Who is this campus for?

Indigenous students from the communities in the Western James Bay region interested in university health professions training (nursing, medicine, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, midwifery, and paramedicine).

The Weeneebayko Health Education Campus will be established in Moosonee, Ontario, and will include coastal community sites.

Training:
- Curricula: decolonized, interprofessional curricula co-created by WAHA and Queen’s. Indigenous ways of knowing will be woven throughout the program.
- Interprofessional: An interprofessional curriculum designed to break down professional silos and prepare graduates to deliver patient care using team-based approaches.
- Mentorship: a mentorship into practice program will promote graduate retention within local communities. 
- Community-centred care: training will be situated within Indigenous communities and will graduate professionals prepared to deliver the care their communities need. 
- Retention: student recruitment, placement and mentorship strategy will ensure that we are training those with the highest likelihood of staying for practice in the long term.

High School Programming: A Health Careers Pathways Program will be developed to provide career counselling, resources, mentorship, and application support to Indigenous high school students, as well as supporting delivery of prerequisite courses for applications in health sciences. 
- Read about the 2022 launch of the WAHA Summer Program at Queen’s

The Weeneebayko Health Education Campus builds upon a nearly six-decade relationship between Queen’s University and Weeneebayko area health facilities anchored in training, frontline care, and research.

The Weeneebayko Health Education Campus aims to address healthcare challenges facing Weeneebayko region communities, and improve accessibility, health outcomes, and cultural competence in care, and bolster representation of Indigenous peoples amongst health professionals.

How will healthcare be transformed?

Recruiting local youth and supporting them through the continuum of education.
Developing a model for university education where training is situated within community, directed by community, and delivered by health professionals from community.
Emphasizing comprehensive, sustainable, community-centred healthcare will improve patient outcomes and address gaps in delivery across the region.
Focusing on workforce retention with graduates capable of and committed to providing exceptional care to their communities.

Are you interested in supporting the project or want to find out more?

Weeneebayko Health Education Campus