By paNOW Staff

Canada World Youth and FSIN sign memorandum of understanding

Jul 11, 2012 | 7:20 AM

Sarah Rolles

paNOW staff

Canada World Youth (CWY)  and the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN)  have teamed up to support First Nations youth.

Louis Moubarak, president and chief executive officer for CWY and Vice Chief Bobby Cameron with the FSIN signed a memorandum of understanding Tuesday that confirms their organizations commitment to get more First Nations youth involved in the Canada World Youth Program.
It was a historical moment for both organizations.

“It’s about assessing the needs, understanding the needs and responding to the needs of aboriginal youth so we can build good programming for aboriginal youth in Saskatchewan and else ware in Canada,” said Moubarak.

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“On average there is 400 Canadian participants per year (in Canada World Youth programs) from Saskatchewan there are about 12 to 25 participants, so it’s a good number but we would like to increase that,” he added.

Last year out of the 19 CWY participants from Saskatchewan 8 of the youth were First Nations and one was Métis. For the upcoming year, the number of youth from Saskatchewan is expected to be at similar levels with First Nations and Métis youth from Saskatchewan representing approximately 30-40% of youth from the region.

“What we are aiming for is to respond to the needs as to why there is not enough participants of aboriginal youth,” said Moubarak. “So by having the buy in from the community we can build on that and increase the number by putting more orientation sessions towards the youth.”

Vice Chief Bobby Cameron said the new agreement will help to open doors for First Nations youth. He said it will help create opportunities for youth at a local level, regional level, and international level.

“This is very important when it involves our youth because our youth are our future leaders and having these kinds of relationships and partnerships with the Canada World Youth Organization is only going to create opportunities for our youth,” he said.

“When our environmental youth council approached us and said this is what we got to do, this is what we see for the future we immediately sat down and started having more meetings and we came up with this memorandum of understanding, of course with Canadian World Youth,” Cameron added.

Sacha Favel from Little Pine First Nation said she is very excited about this new memorandum and partnership. Favel participated this year in the International Aboriginal Youth Internship Program and visited Tanzania in East Africa.

“It makes feel really happy and hopeful because taking part in international programs is really skill building and confidence building so it’s going to be a really, really good opportunity for our youth,” she said.

Throughout the coming months CWY and FSIN will continue to sign specific protocols as they continue to move forward and implement their new co-operative working relationship.

During those collaborations they will follow six key principles:

Youth Focus, skill training, community involvement, holistic approach, respect and safety and well-being.

srolles@panow.com

Twitter:@sarahlynnrolles