He's putting together the final touches of a Kivalliq Inuit Association-sponsored youth symposium that he hopes will spur youth to develop activities for themselves.

The four-day brain-storming event, held Feb. 24 to 28, will gather four youngsters from each of seven Kivalliq communities together here.

Part training, part practical project development, Lindell hopes to inspire these participants with ideas they can make work on a small scale.

Anyone interested in attending should call Lindell at (867) 645-2800 before the Feb. 13 deadline.

"I kinda want them to get things going in their community with what they have first -- for example, to organize their own club -- then when they've established that, they try to do something a little bigger," Lindell says.

Going too large too soon can result in disappointment and a "been there, done that, it didn't work" attitude.

"A lot of times when we ask youth what they want, they'll say they want a coffee shop or a pool hall; but if it doesn't get set up or built and a year goes by, youth can get turned off," Lindell says.

"We don't want to say don't think about those things, but making smaller projects work will make them ready for bigger projects later," Lindell says.

Youth will learn to take an inventory of what their community has that can help make a project happen.

"Many communities have a community hall and every community has a hunters and trappers organization," Lindell explains of facilities where indoor or outdoor activities can start from.

"We want to give them some ideas they can do now. We can help them go through the steps to make these ideas happen."

The symposium will explore youth strengths and help them develop their leadership potential, as well as put them through team building activities.

"We'll get them to look at an idea and go through the steps: brainstorming the idea, talking to people for factfinding, all the way through to making an activity a reality," Lindell says.

A number of speakers from the major Inuit organizations in Nunavut will also be on hand.

By explaining what their organization does, the speakers will broaden youthful minds and open their horizons: in their community, in their territory and nationally.

"We want to give the youth of Kivalliq a chance to know what's going on in their community and what's going on in Kivalliq," Lindell says.