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PANNIQTUUQ/PANGNIRTUNG
It's Chris Heide's job to connect youth with opportunities, and to get the government funding to make those opportunities a reality.

Mary Kunilusie gets into the groove while other girls enjoy a game on the Wii at the Pangnirtung youth centre. Every second Friday night is girls' night, a time for young women to play and spend time with their female peers. - photo courtesy of Naomi Corder

"The federal and territorial governments," Heide said, "have to make youth a priority for the foreseeable future."

And they are, at least where he is. Heide is the co-ordinator of Making Connections for Youth, a pilot project that gives youth in Pangnirtung the keys to a chest of federal and territorial funding.

"Rather than a government department saying we've come up with this program, so will you please design something in your community to fit our program," he said, "we go to the government and say, we've identified this need, will you please respond to it, whether it fits your program criteria or not?"

In other words, through the partnership, Pangnirtung's youth team can submit a single proposal and let the partners sort out where the money comes from.

"We're planning something for each week," said Jenna Kilabuk, a recent high school graduate who started as recreation director in October. "We don't want anyone bored. I'm trying to get youth to find something they like and something they can stick to. Something that makes them feel good about themselves and gets them helping other people. We want something bigger, something that could keep going for years."

The project was originally geared toward anti-crime initiatives, and Pangnirtung was chosen as its test market. Now, Heide has access to funding from a variety of federal and territorial agencies as well as the Qikiqtani Inuit Association. Their support for youth has helped the hamlet revive a previously failing youth centre – the youth council had only three members and the youth centre was regularly vandalized. Now it's a hub where youth are engaged. The youth council has grown to 10 members and youth seek to be active; the youth centre is always bursting with activity, Heide said. In addition, he now has four staff.

One aim is to broaden the audience of the centre, which tends to attract boys and young men.

More than simply providing a safe place to chill and play games, Heide's team's role is also to enhance health and culture, reduce crime, increase youth leadership, and develop job opportunities.

Along that vein, Making Connections for Youth secured funding for a partnership from the federal government to work with the local fish processing plant to give opportunities for youth to get job experience inside the plant and to learn how to be self-employed fishers who supply the plant.

The Government of Nunavut's Dept. of Education is also a big supporter.

"We set up a small engine repair workshop at a local garage where students could go to learn about small engine repair and that was used as credit toward their high school diploma," Heide said. "The students who were taking part in that course were from all grades, but especially 7, 8 and 9. It's an age when a lot of young guys drop out of school. They could go over and get their hands greasy, but they had to go to their other classes if they wanted to do that."

And recent statistics show the novel funding strategy is working.

"We seem to have moved past the crisis of suicide from a few years ago. The crime numbers at the youth docket are way down in the past few years. I'd like to see the dropout rates, but the graduation rates are pleasing."

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