TIGblogs - Kimia

Creating Local Connections (CLC) Canada, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Jan 22-27th
By Kimia Ghomeshi and P.J. Partington

Since CLC was launched in 2006, I have been corresponding with our CLC project partner in Yellowknife (Centre for Northern Families), about various opportunities for TakingITGlobal in the Northwest Territories. Arlene Hache, the Executive Director, is convinced that the knowledge sharing and sense of community that is made possible with the internet is the answer to many of the challenges facing NWT’s youth (as described below). In a nutshell though, the geographical isolation of communities has resulted in a lack of cohesion and poor accessibility to social services. Arlene feels that the opportunities and self-directed learning that is made possible through information technology can and has created a great sense of empowerment amongst NWT’s youth. She believes that the adoption of TIGed and TakingITGlobal in general can have an unprecedented impact on isolated communities in NWT, so she has been seeking potential partners who would be interested in implementing TIG programming territory-wide.

Though some groups were incredibly responsive to the idea of partnering with TIG, many others that heard about us through the grape vine were not fully comfortable working with an organization that did not have a local presence. So P.J. and I decided to pay Yellowknife a visit in hopes of making a lasting impression.  With the support of the Centre for Northern Families youth coordinators, we schedule several meetings with youth serving organizations in the city. We also held a climate change workshop with youth organizers to plan the beginnings of a climate change youth movement in the territory.

And I have to mention the cute Bed and Breakfast that we stayed at amongst tons of Japanese tourists visiting NWT to see the Northern lights (it’s a huge tourist attraction!).

We managed to make it out to Great Slave Lake for a few walks and snowshoeing fun in -50 temperatures. Unfortunately all dog sledding and snowmobiling tours were completely full so we’ll have to save that for the next trip.

Overall, we felt that our visit was incredibly necessary for giving a face to TIG and presenting in detail the various programs that we offer. We had several requests to return and do more workshops, presentations, and to develop some territory-wide initiatives as described below. We could easily book a good 10 presentations/workshops on our next trip, which is super exciting!
Furthermore, we gained much insight into the complexity of obstacles facing NGOs who have placed youth development as a priority. With a high school drop-out rate of ~50% (the majority of whom are aboriginal youth), many organizations are committed to providing services and programming targeting marginalized youth outside of the education system. But they are having extreme difficulties reaching the youth they wish to support. Practically every organization we spoke to shared similar ideas on what the ‘root’ of the problems were:

- High school curriculum – It is not culturally-sensitive to the aboriginal population (teaching mechanisms are counter-intuitive to how aboriginal youth are “taught” in their households, programs taught in English and not their native language, the lack of interaction with nature and spiritual components, etc)

- Domestic situation - Many aboriginal families are unstable, with alcoholism and other addictions being rampant especially in rural communities. Thus children are not well supported by their parents/guardians and in many cases kicked out of their homes.

- Education - Many youth are expelled from the school in their community and not permitted to return even after attending youth programs within correctional facilities. Furthermore, there are no transitional programs available to youth who have “graduated” from a correctional facility with hopes of becoming a respected member of society. They leave the correctional facility with literally nowhere to turn. So they end up back on the streets and without a healthy support network.
- Lack of motivation - Many aboriginal youth come from disenfranchised families, generations back, and have never been “told” or shown that they can have a better life than that afforded to their parents.
- Aboriginal youth are caught between two worlds – many cannot speak their native language, and language is central to feeling a part of any culture. Yet, they definitely have not conformed to the Canadian culture and many feel a great resentment toward the Canadian government and societal structure for the hundreds of years of oppression they have faced. However, many social and youth services provided are run by non-aboriginal peoples so some youth feel a reluctance in taking advantage of these services.

- Isolation – rural communities in NWT are far removed from the services (education, health, youth programming) that can be accessed in Yellowknife. It is in these communities where the majority of NWT’s aboriginal population resides.

- Intergenerational relationships – we hear time and time again that young people are lacking healthy relationships with adults and elders in their communities. For aboriginal youth in particular, these relationships could help to raise their cultural awareness and sense of belonging and pride for their heritage. (In fact, during my social change workshop in Yukon, 3 aboriginal youth said that they want to learn more about their culture from a reliable and relatable source, such as their elders, and not from high school teachers who don’t share their heritage). Anyhow, there is a huge challenge that is usually overlooked in the south when we speak about youth-adult relationships, because for northern communities it is in many cases the adults/elders who are lacking the will and mental capacity to acknowledge their invaluable role as mentors to the youth in their community. More resources need to be invested in providing services such as focus groups, reconciliation programs, and rehabilitation centres in smaller communities.

- Lack of accessible youth centres – there is only one drop-in youth centre in Yellowknife that provides a safe space and bedding for youth. However, it is funded and run by a faith-based group so several youth have expressed their discomfort with regularly using this centre because of references made to religion and a need to adopt religious values. For TakingITGlobal, it is important that we consider these many systemic barriers facing youth when designing programs for these regions. One thing that was echoed by all organizations is the success they’ve had with arts-based initiatives and so (not surprisingly) the Language as Violence, Violence as Language workshop, and the Express Yourself section of TIG were big time favorites for everyone. P.J. and I are really confident that we can have a great impact in NWT by introducing the appropriate programs, such as LVVL, TIGed, and Change That Clicks, and climate change-focused projects. There are some organizations eager to have us back in late March/early April who are currently seeking funding to have us back so our fingers are crossed! After having successfully met with the groups and schools outlined below, we look forward to connecting with youth more directly on our next trip.

*Climate Change Workshop*

Our Climate Change Workshop took place on Thursday, January 24th. Promotions were arranged by the inimitable Palesa Yaxley with the Centre for Northern Families. Posters were put up in key locations (eg. Javaroma, Frostbyte, and at the Schools) and our flyer, including the TIG link, glowed in giant neon on the YK1 District School Board’s illuminated sign on Franklin St, the main thoroughfare. Our name in lights!!

Though the promotions were very thorough, they started only 3 days prior to our arrival. This was due to staffing issues at the Centre.
Unfortunately for attendance, the timing of the workshop itself was also poor, as students were just finishing their exams. However, the consummate pioneering flexibility that has defined TIG allowed us to conduct a highly successful workshop all the same.
Through this flexibility the focus of the workshop shifted from being a session with youth on starting a local group to being a brainstorming and support session where we focussed on identifying the challenges of youth engagement in Yellowknife, identifying a leader (Gilly), and drawing up an action plan for the group’s development into the Spring. It was a small workshop in terms of size, but it was a representative and thoughtful group. A teacher from Sir John high school participated, as well as Jessica Simpson, founder of the Arctic Indigenous Youth Alliance, several young staff from the Centre and other interested youth, making for some great discussion and information sharing. It was also a great chance to set up a support and resource network for Gilly, and the groundwork has now been laid for future successful sessions in the high schools and community.
All in all, the workshop, despite its small size and surprise form, was a great success. Our discussions on the barriers to youth engagement will be particularly helpful to making TIG’s work in the territories effective.
We look forward to working with Gilly and Lauren as they drive their action plan forward. Judging by our other meetings, it will be a very welcome initiative.

Thanks for reading!

Kimia and P.J.

[نورثوست ترّيتوري] رحلة
Automatically translated into Arabic thanks to WorldLingo
يخلق توصيلات محلّية ([كلك]) كندا, [يلّوونيف], [نورثوست ترّيتوري], يناير - كانون الثّاني [22-27ث]
ب [كيميا] [غومشي] و [ب.ج.]. [برتينغتون]

بما أنّ [كلك] كان أطلقت في 2006, يماثل أنا يتلقّى يكون مع نا [كلك] مشروع شريكة في [يلّوونيف] (مركز لأسرات شماليّة), حول فرصة مختلفة ل [تكينجتغلوبل] في ال [نورثوست ترّيتوري]. أقنعت [أرلن] [هش], المديرة تنفيذيّة, أنّ المعرفة يشارك وإحساس الجماعة أنّ يكون جعلت يمكن مع الإنترنت الجوابة إلى كثير من التحديات يواجه [نوت] شباب (بما أنّ [دسكريبد بلوو]). في [نوتشلّ] مع ذلك, قد نتج العمليّة عزل جغرافيّة جماعات في افتقار من تماسك وميسوريّة فقيرة إلى خدمات اجتماعيّة. [أرلن] يشعر أنّ جعلت الفرص و [سلف-ديركتد] يعلم أنّ يمكن مباشرة معلومة تكنولوجيا علبة ويخلق إحساس عظيمة تفويض سلطة [أمونغست] [نوت] شباب. هو يصدق أنّ التبن من [تيجد] و [تكينجتغلوبل] في جنرال يستطيع يتلقّى تأثير صدمة منقطع نظير على يعزل جماعات في [نوت], لذلك يبحث هو يتلقّى يكون شريكات ممكنة الذي كان راغبة في يطبّق [تيغ] يبرمج [ترّيتور-ويد].

رغم أنّ بعض مجموعة كانوا بشكل لا يصدّق مستجيبة إلى الفكرة من يتشارك مع [تيغ], [ب] كثير أخرى أنّ سمع حول نا من خلال ال [غرب فين] لم عمل مريحة كلّيّا مع تنظيم أنّ لم يتلقّى وجود محلّية. هكذا [ب.ج.]. وقرّر أنا أن يدفع [يلّوونيف] زيارة في أمل من يجعل إنطباع دائمة.  مع الدعم من المركز لشماليّة أسرات شباب منسقات, يبرمج نحن عدّة اجتماعات مع شباب حصة تنظيمات في المدينة. نحن أيضا أمسكنا مناخ تغير ورشة مع شباب منظمات أن يخطّط البدايات من مناخ تغير شباب حركة في الأرض.

وأنا يضطرّ ذكرت السرير جذّابة وتناول الفطور أنّ بقي نحن في [أمونغست] أطنان من سائحات يابانيّة يزور [نوت] أن يرى الأضواء شماليّة (هو حالة جذب ضخمة سياحيّة!).

نحن أدرنا أن يجعل هو خارجا إلى بحيرة عظيمة مستعبد ل [ا فو] مشية و [سنووشوينغ] حالة لهو في -50 درجة حرارة. لسوء الحظّ كلّ كلب [سلدّينغ] وكان [سنووموبيلينغ] رحلات تماما يشبع لذلك نحن نريد يضطرّ [سف ثت] للرحلة تالية.

إجماليّة, [فلت] نحن أنّ زيارتنا كان بشكل لا يصدّق ضروريّة ل يعطي وجه إلى [تيغ] ويقدّم [إين دتيل] البرامج مختلفة أنّ نحن نقدّم. نحن تلقّينا عدّة طلبات أن يرجع وأتمّت كثير ورش, أعراض, وأن يطوّر بعض مبادرات [ترّيتور-ويد] بما أنّ [دسكريبد بلوو]. نحن استطاع بسهولة حجزت جيّدة 10 أعراض/ورش على رحلتنا تالية, أيّ يكون فائقة يثير!
علاوة على ذلك, كسب نحن كثير تبصر داخل التعقيد العوائق يواجه [نغس] الذي قد وضع شباب تطوير كأولوية. مع مدرسة ثانويّة [دروب-ووت] معدل من ~50% (الأغلبية من الّذي يكون شباب أروميّة), ارتكبت كثير تنظيمات إلى يزوّد خدمات ويبرمج يستهدف همّش شباب خارج من ال [إدوكأيشن سستم]. غير أنّ يتلقّى هم صعوبات متطرّفة يبلغ الشباب هم يتمنّون أن يساند. عمليّا كلّ تنظيم نحن تكلّمنا إلى يشارك أفكار مماثلة على ماذا ال `جذر' من المشاكل كان:

- مدرسة ثانويّة منهج تعليم - ليس هو [كلتثرلّ-س�