Community Benefits
The purpose of the Spirit Healthcare Group is to grow strong companies that are able to invest in the needs of our communities.
We follow the new business model known as Indigenomics, which is the practice of bringing an Indigenous perspective to the way we do business with an eye on economic growth, financial return and healthcare/social development to the benefit of our communities.
Financial Returns
We are proud to report that in early 2020, we were able to issue dividends of $175,000 ($25,000 to each Tribal Council) — for the first time in nearly ten years Our Pharmacy, SpiritRx Services, has delivered:
Combined return of $560,000 directly to our shareholders and communities.
Approximately $1.6 million since September 2015.
Economic Growth
Through one of our companies, SpiritRx Services, we have been expanding an improving our pharmaceutical services while also increasing employment in our communities. Our goal is to have a national footprint by expanding our Indigenous pharmacy model into other provinces.
By owning a pharmacy and a company that sells our own medical products, we are stopping the cycle of feeding the bank accounts of big pharma and, instead we are investing a significant part of our profits back into our communities. We call this Indigenomics in action!
Healthcare/Social Development
Further investments in the health and well being of our communities include:
- a share of profits generated through sales of our Spirit test strips to people living with diabetes are used to help finance a Diabetes Program that offers the resources of diabetes educators including dietitians and pharmacists.
- Funding of our Indigenous Gestational Diabetes Initiative provides us with the opportunity to make progress in advancing improvement in rates of diabetes across generations.
Family Safety Kits
In partnership with the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO), the Spirit Healthcare Group accessed funding from ISC to design, build and distribute COVID-19 Family Safety Kits to northern First Nation communities during the pandemic.
Each kit is made up of some of our own Spirit branded products including 20 pairs of SPIRIT nitrile gloves, 2 bottles of SPIRIT hand sanitizer, 20 SPIRIT surgical grade face masks, a SPIRIT digital thermometer and a bar of soap.
The Family Safety Kits are designed to help our community members stay safe during the pandemic. We thank MKO for its support, and all our community members who worked hard to make this initiative a reality.
