Rankin Inlet (May 04/05) - Nunavut youth will not be affected by plans to expand the Nunavut Youth Abroad program (NYAP) into other regions, says program director Chris Dasilva.

The NYAP will launch a pilot project involving NWT youth this summer, and move towards a new name of Northern Youth International.

Dasilva says two main issues prompted the NYAP's plan for expansion.

He says the program is coming to the end of its five-year strategic plan aimed at ensuring the stability of the organization and having a broader funding base.

"By expanding the program to other Northern jurisdictions - if funding were to go soft in one area, we could keep everything afloat by tapping funding from another jurisdiction," says Dasilva.

"By being bigger, we become a bit more stable and better equipped to ride out rough spots that come up from time to time."

The second issue is the need for a program like the NYAP in other jurisdictions.

Dasilva says the challenges Inuit youth in Nunavut face are similar to those of Inuit youth in Nunavik and Labrador, as well as aboriginal youth in the NWT.

He says the NYAP is an effective model that should be shared with other kids who can benefit from it, but only if it succeeds on its own merit.

"We won't make any decision that would jeopardize the program's position in Nunavut.

"We're adamant that we will not put at risk what we've worked so hard to build during the past 10 years just for the sake of growing."

The NWT experiment is identical to the NYAP pilot conducted in 1997.

If proven to be as effective with NWT youth - and funding stays in place in the territory - it will proceed to the International Phase in the summer of 2006.

Dasilva says the funding received from the GNWT has allowed the amortization of administrative costs over two regions, resulting in the hiring of a second staff member in Ottawa.

"That also gives us an extra resource to use for the benefit of the Nunavut side.

"We've doubled our capacity without doubling the exact size of the program.

"Spreading your staff costs is the type of benefit that can accrue to an organization when it gets a little bigger.

"To find host families for 12 pairs is not that much different from 20 pairs."

Separate funding

Dasilva says the 10 NWT youth taking part in the pilot project this summer have already been selected.

He says funding allocations will be kept separate and if the program doesn't reach its funding target in the NWT, the number of youth from that territory would be lowered.

"Under no circumstances would we take Nunavut money to send NWT kids out on the program.

"We'll keep our targets very closely matched to the number of participants from each region."

The International and Canadian phases of the NYAP produce an average cost of about $12,000 per student.

In Nunavut, 18 youth participate in the Canadian Phase and eight in the International Phase.

"Not only are we expanding, but we've taken the funding support from the Department of Education and translated it into a larger program for Nunavut youth."

A student will be brought in to work with the NYAP this summer.

Dasilva says one task assigned to the worker will be to compile data on 80-plus students to have passed through the NYAP.

"We know 93 per cent of the kids who went through the NYAP have graduated from high school.

"We want to know where they are and what they're doing."

Dasilva says the statistics speak for themselves when the program's Grade 12 graduation rate is compared to non-NYAP participants.

He says the percentage is made even more impressive by the fact the NYAP does not select only the top academic students from Nunavut schools.

"We're looking for kids who are, maybe, in danger of slipping through the cracks.

"The NYAP does not bolster its numbers by picking only the cream of the crop.

"Our alumni actually help select the successful applicants every year from their own regions.

"We try to involve our alumni in the program at every opportunity."