To First Nations people, learning is the essence of living; it’s organic and natural, and for many, represented by the medicine wheel in one form or another. 

Intercultural, or intertribal are words that connote the necessity to work effectively together to effect desired outcomes. "Cultural" in this context refers not only to 'people from other cultures' but rather the fact that everyone represents a perspective unique to themselves.

From Wikipedia...

Intercultural competence is a range of cognitive, affective, and behavioural skills that lead to effective and appropriate communication with people of other cultures. Effective intercultural communication relates to behaviors that culminate with the accomplishment of the desired goals of the interaction and all parties involved in the situation. Appropriate intercultural communication includes behaviors that suit the expectations of a specific culture, the characteristics of the situation, and the level of the relationship between the parties involved in the situation.It also takes into consideration one's own cultural norms and the best appropriate, comfortable compromise between the different cultural norms. 

To Indigenous people, medicine is a term used to describe a state of balance and anything that helps get to that state. Michael and Judy Bopp are co-founders of Four Worlds International, a human and community development organization with roots in indigenous peoples’ development work in North America and well known for its ability to bridge between the cultures of communities and the culture of the agencies and professionals who attempt to serve them. (Bopp J. B., 2006) They explain that,

Medicine in tribal tradition refers to any substance, process, teaching, song, story or symbol that helps to restore balance in human beings and their communities. The medicine wheel is an ancient symbol which represents an entire world view (a way of seeing and knowing) and the teachings that go with it. (Bopp J. B., 2006, p. 22)

Borrowing from the timeless wisdom of the medicine wheel provides us with all we need to establish a simple, non-linear framework of intercultural purpose, and HOPE Alliance wants to help you or your organization find and restore balance and purpose moving forward. 

The Hope Wheel is a powerful guide we use to teach you how to navigate the varied cultural perspectives of people and their networks. Individuals and groups are placed on the Hope Wheel relative to their experiences in life, how they view them and the emotions created as a result. Becoming aware of the social, emotional and cognitive states, (what we frame as cultural perspectives,) embedded in our clients allows us to work with them in purpose-driven contexts as they learn to advance themselves on the wheel in different domains of learning how to know, do, be and live purposefully and productively with each other. We help our clients generate meaningful dialog around each of their variable positions on the wheel, and used the graphic model as a template for personal growth. 

The Hope Wheel provides a valuable visual representation development and progress. Hope is the elemental foundation supporting the process. Surrounding this hope are four concepts, each representing a concentric path toward cultural interdependence. In the east, the first path is Respect.

Respect

Respect is the place on the Hope Wheel where people gaze with wonderment at the world surrounding them and begin to simply realize they are part of this world; they are learning to be. They begin to feel an implicit purpose to learn. They need answers to the question, “why?” When we walk the path of discovery with people we support finding the answers they seek; we establish value in learning… we help them define purpose. A template for interaction between themselves and others is established on the path of respect. Interacting with ideas and concepts in the domain of respect leads to the establishment of self identity, and orients people toward the evolution from dependence to independence.

Understanding

The domain of understanding is where people learn to know. Skill acquisition, new knowledge and rationale for life-long learning are established within this domain. People at this stage begin developing an independent nature as they take risks with learning and start to develop intrinsic motivation to discover. In the domain of understanding people sharpen their focus on the surrounding world; they look more critically at themselves and others in their quest to gain knowledge and make sense of things. 

Relationships

When people move to the relationships phase of the wheel, they begin to understand the value of interdependence among people; they learn to live purposefully and collaboratively with each other. People who function competently in this domain actively seek extrinsic sources of support in their developing relationships, and they begin to understand that interdependency is about distributing strengths among a network of collaborative people working together to learn. In the domain of relationships people become more resilient by seeking the support of significant others. They learn how to think deeper and critically about ideas, and they establish self-imposed boundaries.

Responsibility

Individuals who have traveled full-circle on the Hope Wheel enter the domain of responsibility where they learn to do. They display an implicit understanding of the imperative to serve self first so they can responsibly and competently serve others. They understand what taking action means. They become caregivers for those traveling the hope paths behind them. In the domain of responsibility people display intrinsic knowledge and insight as a result of their experiences, and they begin to feel confident enough as leaders to engage others; to support and nurture them.

Let HOPE Alliance Help You Write Your Success Story

The Hope Wheel is grassroots theory applied to our personal and interpersonal perspectives. It’s a model we can use to place ourselves and those around us on a continuum of human development. We enter the phase of respect when confronted by something totally new, but perhaps function confidently in the domain of responsibility in a different context as a result of our experiences and the knowledge we gained as a result. Where we fall on the Hope Wheel is a reflection of our developing personal cultural identity; our Learning Story. Owing to the notion that self-awareness leads to self-confidence and the willingness to share our values and perspectives with others, the Hope Wheel is also a conduit for confident intercultural communication leading to increased cultural knowledge and responsiveness, essentially becoming aware of other people's Learning Stories. 

The cultural perspective we hold is shaped by our experiences as influenced by our birthplace, our family, our spirituality and the zeitgeist within which we were born; it’s the cultural reality lens we look through. Our cultural identity is learned beginning the moment we’re born. Steve Van Bockern, coauthor of “Reclaiming Youth at Risk- Our Hope for the Future” (Brendtro, 2002) refers to this identity as our cultural tail. I had the pleasure of attending a retreat with Steve on the Morley Indian Reservation west of Calgary in 2002. He explained that we can’t cut off our cultural tail; it’s always there, behind us affecting our perspective, but also that great things are possible in everyone’s future despite this tail that follows us. (Bockern, 2002) Whether good, bad or indifferent, our cultural tail tells the story of where we’ve come from; who we are in terms of how our environments affect us, but it doesn’t have to predict where we’re headed. Obvious physical characteristics and genetic traits define our culture in part from the second we’re conceived. After we’re born, the evolving cultural identity we form is largely influenced by our relationships and surroundings. These conditions influence how our present story is told. They are the "stories behind the story." HOPE Alliance is designed to explore the influences of our stories behind our story, and also the stories behind other's stories. The ultimate objective is to leverage this awareness leading to successful efforts to walk our paths purposefully, confidently, happily, and collaboratively.

From a cultural perspective, in many ways we begin our lives rather innocently. Like clay to the sculptor, we start as unformed material yearning to be molded and shaped into a more tangible form; our growing cultural identity. Just as soon as we see the light of the world we begin forming perceptions and feelings about our culture and how we are different from others. We are the sum total of what and who we think we are. In addition to being self-aware with respect to our personal cultural perspective, it behooves all of us to be responsible about noticing the cultural perspectives of others so we can help them form positive perceptions about their personal identities. This enables us all to confidently build relationships and circles of support as we share our evolving perspective with each other.

HOPE Alliance will teach you how to make deliberate and rewarding efforts to learn your own stories and the stories of others so we can support you in ways that nurture the hopeful chapters yet to be written... the ones with the happy endings. 

Click through the sub page headings below to learn more about each of the H-O-P-E Domains...

Health - Opportunity - Privilege - Education