Page 70 - Walking_The_Red_Road

Our Youth Want to Connect to Culture, Help the Community and Each Other
The opportunity
The Youth Action Circle (YAC) was created to engage and empower youth to participate in the project. Our overall goal was to ensure that youth perspectives, ideas, concerns and priorities were included. In addition to two youth members formally participating on the CAC and offering advice, the YAC soon began organizing its own initiatives and events for the broader youth community.
When we started
We reviewed the literature regarding youth
engagement, paying particular attention to the
importance of using culture to engage Aboriginal
youth. We found Engaging and Empowering Aboriginal Youth: A toolkit for service providers, to be very helpful. Of specific relevance to us was the concept of bi-cultural competence: “an important idea related to cultural identity in that youth who have the skills, values and attitudes necessary to be successful in their traditional community as well as in the dominant culture will be better able to make positive and healthy choices in a range of areas” (Crooks et al, 2009, p. 10). All of the youth we met through the project live between “both worlds” as urban Aboriginal, Métis, status and non-status youth.
What we did
We learned quickly that the youth participants had many ideas about what they wanted to do and how they wanted to do it. Accordingly, we focussed on how to support them to meet their goals—read on to find out more about the importance of offering consistent support and opportunities.
Walking the Red Road | REPORT OF THE URBAN ABORIGINAL COMMUNITIES THRIVE PROJECT | 70
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When I got here, I was shocked that no one spoke their language. I realized that I had that knowledge. I was proud. And I could share it with others.
Mckenzie Ottereyes-Eagle, YAC Member