KITIKMEOT
Youth councils are gathering traction in the Kitikmeot.
The hamlet of Cambridge Bay will be establishing a mayor's youth council in the new year.
Kugluktuk's youth council is interviewing post-secondary students from the hamlet to help motivate current high school students to graduate. Back from left: Preston Kapakatoak, Breale Hokanak, Jodi Alderson, Kendall Kuodlak and Dennis Kokak. Front from left: Tiffany Novoligak, Coral Westwood, Ashley Newman and Keisha Nivingalok. - Davis Ho/NNSL photo |
"We wanted to give youth the voice they so desperately need. So they have a voice in the discussions about their future," senior administrative officer Marla Limousin said.
The seven-member council will range from ages 10 to 23, with two elementary, two junior high and two high school students and one member of the community. The council will hold its own monthly meetings as well as meet with the hamlet council each month to advise on youth initiatives.
"Council has been listening to the issues of youth in the community over the past year," said Limousin. "We will work with them on leadership training, and on programs and specific projects that the committee wants to bring on for their fellow youth."
The Ovayok Broadcasting Society recently donated $5,000 to the new council. This is paired with a $2,000 donation presented to the hamlet in the summertime by the Crystal Serenity for youth initiatives in the community.
"This little group has $7,000 to start up with," said Limousin.
Interested youth will be required to submit a letter stating why they would like to sit on the council and the hamlet will select members.
Besides providing funding, the Ovayok Broadcasting Society is also offering to help students write their proposals, and provide a central meeting space in town for the council to have its sessions, said president Wayne Gregory.
The hamlet has been struggling with finding ways to engage youth, and reduce results of low youth engagement, like poor attendance in schools, substance use and vandalism, said Limousin.
"I don't hear their voice. We are going to create that mechanism where they actually have a pipeline right to the leadership. Through this then we create future leaders."
Meanwhile, all this is already happening in Kugluktuk.
Fifteen-year-old Ashley Newman is one of eight members on the Kugluktuk Youth Council that has been underway for two years.
"It's to have a youth voice in the community," she said.
The group meets every two weeks to plan events in the community and discuss youth initiatives. The group is also supported by a representative from the council and occasionally participates in town meetings.
"They're not elected members, but they have a voice there," said youth coordinator Jodi Alderson.
Meeting at council helps with building formal presentation skills, but this can also be intimidating and takes time to learn, she said.
The process helps build confidence - something Newman is not short on.
She is helping the council complete an educational awareness project on the importance of university and college education.
The council is interviewing four of the 11 students from Kugluktuk currently enrolled in post-secondary education. The interview involves asking the students the same 10 questions, and posting the answers on community social media and in the high school. The youth will be sharing their findings with the town council.
"We want to encourage people to go to post-secondary school after high school," said Newman.
The youth came up with the project after reading the minutes from the hamlet council and seeing that the hamlet already wanted to recognize its post-secondary students.
Two of the four interviews are already completed.
"They are people we know personally," said Newman.
She interviewed Jenny Klengenberg, a 19-year-old student at Nunavut Sivuniksavut who is taking Inuit studies.
Newman asked Klengenberg what she could have done to better prepare for post-secondary education and also how she finished high school.
"Jenny encouraged us to put our heart into it. She said she would have paid more attention in class and she would have spent more time with her parents."
Newman enjoys class herself, but she sees students around her struggling.
"One of the big questions was about the graduation rate."
The current high school graduation rate in Kugluktuk is 30 per cent, she said.
"We want to motivate people. Post-secondary students are role models for us," said Newman.
"This gives us an idea of what they are experiencing. It gives students a better understanding."
