Life’s Thresholds Deserve Stewardship

Family Stewards guide families through life’s most important transitions with education, relational support, and ceremony.
Too often, families are left to navigate these moments alone. We exist to change that.

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Supporting birth, parenting & family as rites of passage.

Family Stewards walk alongside families before, during, and after birth — supporting not only the arrival of a baby, but the becoming of parents, partners, and kin.

This work recognizes that birth reshapes an entire family system, and that families thrive when they are supported relationally, culturally, and communally.

Family Stewards are trained to support both parents — together and individually — through the transition into parenthood.

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What is a Family Steward?

A Family Steward is a trained guide who supports families through major life transitions — especially pregnancy, birth, and early parenthood — with care for:

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The Birthing & Non-Birthing Parent

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Extended Family & Chosen Kin

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Emotional, Cultural, & Relational Well-being

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Long-Term Family Resilience

Family Stewards work alongside midwives, doctors, and community care providers. We do not replace medical care — we strengthen the relational care around it.

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Here’s Why This Work Exists

Across what is currently known as Southern Vancouver Island, nearly one-third of birthing parents don’t have consistent access to medical maternity care.

Those who do often receive little support for the emotional, relational, and cultural transition into parenthood, for themselves or for their partners.

Non-birthing parents are frequently expected to “figure it out,” even as their roles, relationships, and responsibilities are profoundly shifting.

At a moment of deep openness for the entire family, parents are often left without the village they need.

This project exists because that isn’t enough.

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The Family Stewardship Centre

The Family Stewardship Centre is being imagined as a community-rooted space grounded in Indigenous knowledge, ceremony, and family stewardship, where families are born.

The Centre is envisioned as a place where:

  • Birth is held with safety, dignity, and ceremony

  • Both parents are stewarded into their new roles

  • Families are supported beyond the moment of birth

  • Indigenous midwives and Family Stewards work side by side

  • Community replaces isolation

Family Stewards support Indigenous midwives and families by helping to:

  • Organize ceremony

  • Build the village around new parents

  • Strengthen intergenerational connections

  • Support each family member as they step into new roles with clarity and confidence

Our vision is both simple and bold:

Every family deserves to birth in safety, dignity, ceremony, and community.
Both parents deserve to be stewarded into parenthood.

Support The Centre
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When Families Are Supported Early

Research and lived experience show that early relational support leads to:

  • Stronger family cohesion

  • Reduced relationship conflict

  • Lower risk of intimate partner violence

  • Lower rates of separation and divorce

  • Healthier, more supported employees

  • Higher retention following parental leave

Supporting families is not only compassionate; it’s preventative, economic, and generational.

Follow Our Research

Who We Are

Meet the Wise Council

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Founder & Vision Keeper

Jacylin Poirier Lacerte (Jace)

Jace is the Founder and Vision Keeper of COYA Family Stewards and the Family Stewardship Centre.

A mixed-heritage Métis educator, evaluator, and birthworker, she brings more than two decades of experience in program design, research, and Indigenous-led evaluation. A Distinguished Alumni of the University of Victoria and an award-winning social impact innovator, Jace leads this work with a deep commitment to ceremony, community care, and Indigenous data sovereignty.

She holds the original fire of this vision:

Every birth is a ceremony

Becoming a parent is a rite of passage

Every family deserves to be stewarded into community

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The Wise Council

The Wise Council exists to midwife a community vision into being.

The Wise Council is a circle of support, not a board. Twenty humans have volunteered their hands, minds, spirits, and hearts to make this possible.

Meet The Council
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Our Commitment

Governance & Accountability

The COYA Wise Council stewards the vision, values, and accountability of this work, ensuring impact is defined not only by outcomes, but by how those outcomes are achieved with our community. We uphold commitments to:

  • Relational accountability to families, all our relations, and Mother Earth

  • OCAP® (Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession) of Indigenous Data

  • Free, Prior, and Informed Consent throughout our shared experience

  • The COYA Agreements:
    Contribute Our Gifts • Own Our Actions • Yearn for Growth • Act on Legacy 

Meet The Council

Our Relationships

The Family Stewardship Centre is for all our precious relatives living on Lək̓ʷəŋən-speaking Territory. 

We prioritize families from Kosapsum, Songhees, Tsartlip, Pauquachin, Tsawout, Tseycum, Malahat, and T’Sou-ke Nations, and all our Métis, Inuit, and other Urban Indigenous kin who call this place home.

Family is the greatest legacy we can birth together.

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Support the Centre

The Family Stewardship Centre is being built through relationship, trust, and collective care.

If this vision resonates, there are many ways to walk alongside the work, including:

  • Have a Legacy Property? Donate to the Centre.

  • Provide a Family Steward for your Nation Members, Employees, Children, or Friends

  • Support Families facing financial barriers

  • Connect your services to our families


With your donation, we bring birth back home.

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Meet The Council

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Meet The Council ✧

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    Erin Beattie

    Erin is a storyteller and communicator with 20 years of experience helping people feel seen, heard, and understood. A retired doula and parent, Erin’s lived experience with endometriosis, cancer, and neurodivergence shapes the compassion and clarity she brings to this work. She weaves narrative, care, and practical communication to support projects rooted in healing, ceremony, and collective care.

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    Stephanie Murray

    Steph brings experience in finance, operations, and organizational strategy. With a Diploma in Business Administration, a BTech in Graphic Communications Management, and an MBA in Sustainable Innovation, she offers grounded financial stewardship and analytical insight to support the centre’s long-term sustainability.

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    Anika Sparling

     Anika is a settler of German ancestry raising a family on the territories of the Songhees and Xwsepsum Nations. She works in government policy and brings a background in research, analysis, and gender equity to support thoughtful, accountable decision-making.

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    Mal Kryklywyj

    Mal is a business operations leader with expertise in governance design, program management, and complex project delivery. With experience across Indigenous-led organizations, technology, and enterprise environments, they bring a practical understanding of how to build systems that balance accountability with community-centred values.

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    Lauren Fortuna - Floch

    Lauren Fortuna-Floch is a Registered Nurse, Holistic Birth & Postpartum Doula, and Trauma-Informed Somatic Practitioner supporting families through pregnancy, birth, and the transition into parenthood. She brings an integrative lens that weaves medical expertise, nervous system–aware and culturally responsive care, and the ceremonial understanding of birth and matrescence as transformative rites of passage.

Let’s Build Relationship(s)

We work in relationship. Share your story, and we’ll connect with you in a good way.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • The Family Stewardship Centre is a community-rooted birth and family care space grounded in Indigenous knowledge, ceremony, and relational care.

    Family Stewards support families through pregnancy, birth, early parenthood, and other major life transitions — stewarding both birthing and non-birthing parents, and the wider family system, with culturally safe support.We offer flexible pricing based on project type and complexity. After an initial conversation, we’ll provide a transparent quote with no hidden costs.

  • No. The Centre is not a medical facility.

    Family Stewards provide community-based, relational, and culturally grounded care and work alongside midwives and existing healthcare providers, who are responsible for medical care.

  • Birth as ceremony recognizes birth as a profound life transition — not only a clinical event.

    It means honouring the emotional, relational, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of birth, and supporting families with intention, respect, and care as they move through this transition together.

  • The Birth and Family Stewardship Centre prioritizes families from Kosapsum, Songhees, Tsartlip, Pauquachin, Tsawout, Tseycum, Malahat, and T’Sou-ke Nations, and all Métis, Inuit, and other Urban Indigenous kin who call this place home.

    We also welcome families across Southern Vancouver Island and surrounding communities who are seeking relational, culturally grounded support through birth and the transition into parenthood.

  • This work is guided by the COYA Wise Council, which holds the vision, values, and relational accountability of the Centre.

    The Wise Council operates through Indigenous governance principles, ensuring decisions are made with care, consent, and responsibility to families, Nations, and future generations.

  • OCAP® refers to principles that uphold Indigenous data sovereignty.

    They ensure that Indigenous communities maintain Ownership, Control, Access, and Possession of their data, including how information is collected, used, stored, and shared.

  • Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) means that decisions are made transparently, without pressure, with adequate time, and with full understanding of impacts.

    It centres respect for relationships and ensures participation happens by choice, not assumption.

  • Funding for the Centre is being developed through a mix of:

    • philanthropy and community donations

    • grants and public funding

    • employer-supported family care

    • earned revenue

    • research and learning partnerships

  • Support may take many forms, including:

    • Funding care for Nation  members

    • Adding Family Stewards to your  Employer health benefits package

    • Connecting current clients to our centre

    • Funding our Healthy Relationships Research with the University of Victoria’s Healthy Relationships Lab

    All partnerships are shaped through reciprocal relationship, consent, and shared responsibility.

  • This page will continue to evolve as the project unfolds.

    Opportunities to stay connected, support the work, and walk alongside the Centre will be shared over time.

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Don’t forget to subscribe to the Family Stewardship Newsletter.

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