ACHO DENE KOE/FORT LIARD
As the executive program director for Global Sorority, a documentary filming leadership development with young women in 10 countries, Loretta Cella is used to hearing youth express doubt in their ability to make their communities a better place.

Loretta Cella, centre, speaks with male youth who are working away at making "super hero sock monkeys." As they make their monkeys, they write on a piece of paper a wish they had for their life and sewed it into the monkey's body. - photo courtesy of Sophie Kirby

So when Cella came to Fort Liard to run a leadership program for 20 youth between the ages of 11 and 15, she knew just what to do when they worried their age and other factors could limit the impact they can have.

Cella is the founder of Passion to Lead, an organization that aims to provide young people with innovative leadership programming so they have the ability to reach their potential regardless of their circumstances.

From Nov. 11 to 14, Cella ran the organization's 14-hour Elements of Success leadership course in Fort Liard. Originally designed for women, the run of this course in Fort Liard marks the first time the course included male youth as well.

Barriers identified for removal

The basis of that course is to give youth the tools to identify who they are as individuals and recognize the circumstances and beliefs that might limit their potential.

"(We talked about) removing those belief systems, those limiting beliefs, and then how (to) create a positive community that's supportive of growing and developing together," Cella said.

"Once (the youth) have solidified their leadership skills, then they create a project in the community where they can actually see their learning and their skills come to fruition."

Helped by community mentors, the youth are then encouraged to turn that project into a reality.

In Fort Liard, the group came up with two projects they could pursue to make the community a better place: first, a weekly summer cleanup of the community, and second, a shelter for dogs that would deal with the amount of homeless dogs in Fort Liard.

Cella called the ideas "incredible."

"That's pretty amazing, considering the challenges those youth face on a number of levels, for them to be so determined, so clear, and in such a short period of time to come up with solutions they can actually do," she said.

"Those are things they can actually achieve in the community, to be able to feel proud as leaders."

Leah Timbre, one of the youth who took part in the course, said she has more confidence in herself than she did before. Timbre hopes to help out with the dog shelter.

"I want to take care of all the homeless dogs we have here," Timbre said. That would involve first creating a fundraiser to help pay for a place the dogs can go.

Timbre said being a part of the Global Sorority documentary was fun. Her favourite part of the leadership course was when the students were tasked with sewing sock monkeys.

"It was an amazing experience," she said.

During the Elements of Success course, Cella filmed the process and did interviews for Global Sorority, a documentary looking at the issues faced by young women and girls.

Now, she said, the film is also looking at how bringing males into the picture is important for development and growth.

The documentary has filmed in eight countries so far.

The perspective of Northern Canadian youth is especially important, Cella said, given the barriers many aboriginal youth face.

"The issues youth face were actually all the same - the circumstances were all different but the core reasons were the same," she said about what she has found so far through the documentary.

"The Northwest Territories is a very important representation of Canada, and we wanted to make sure we captured that."

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