SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Though the name seems ambiguous, resiliency education is just that: teaching youth to make good life choices and resist the potential pitfalls of youth.

Donovan Black is a 12-year-old Grade 7 student at K'álemì Dene School. He enjoys the resiliency program because of the fun field trips. - Stewart Burnett/NNSL photo

"Our youth face lots of challenges," said Eileen Erasmus, principal of K'alemi Dene School in Ndilo, which received $50,000 from the GNWT to restart its resiliency program.

"There is lots of peer pressure and negative activities that are very easy to get involved in and sometimes hard to get out of once you get into."

Namely, underage drinking, drug use and getting in trouble with the law are common among youth in Ndilo. K'alemi previously ran a resiliency program for five years but lost funding until the recent injection.

Erasmus said it filled a big need with youth in the area. Through a variety of activities, classes take a cultural Dene perspective on goal setting, making positive decisions, managing stress and learning about healthy relationships.

One class had students make cards and goodie bags for elders on Valentine's Day. Students had to earn money to buy the gifts through recycling.

Grade 7 student Donovan Black enjoys the program.

"Last year (my teacher) took us snowboarding, biking and ... to the beach," he said. "It was fun."

He said the program gets him closer to his friends.

John Stewart, director of instructional school services with the GNWT, said resiliency education aims for better attendance rates, course completion, graduation rates, transitions to work and improving skills in accessing support services.

"Our conviction ... is you don't get educational improvement just by testing kids more or having them work longer," said Stewart. "You have to get at some of the issues that underlie their ability to cope with challenge and resiliency addresses that."

Erasmus said the damage of residential schools is apparent in the North.

"We're looking at second, third generation people who had a real horrific past and horrific experiences in school," she said.

"We have to do a lot of work in building those healthy skills to help us overcome those stresses."

The GNWT will be tracking the program in Ndilo and other schools to judge possible expansion across the territory.

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