In September of 2002 we were approached by a representative from Corrections Canada to consider coming on-board to assist Métis offenders in the federal corrections system. Our Board of Directors discussed at length this idea. The Board decided that we could possibly involve ourselves in this type of program but much doubt remained so they took this question to our Elders Council. After much deliberation our Elders came to the conclusion that we could involve ourselves in a project such as this but we would need to partner with another community organization that knows what it is doing in this area.

We partnered with the John Howard Society Lower Mainland, who began immediately to help several of our members get their security clearances to enter the federal corrections institutions so we could begin our journey. This partnership has been understood to be a temporary one right from the beginning. It was agreed that it would take us about three years to develop our own unique program for Métis offenders. In the spring of 2005, Walk Bravely Forward was registered as a society in British Columbia. Then in the Winter of 2006, we were granted our charitable status #86330 7583 RR0001.

The Walk Bravely Forward program was designed and implemented from the standpoint that the community has the power and the desire to bring back members who are incarcerated. The VMCA community as a whole saw the value in working with the offenders and their families in a reunification process that concurrently kept the offender from falling into the trap of recidivism.