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By meadowlakeNOW Staff

HELPING YOUTH

New partnership opens the door for Youth Councils in the MLTC

Aug 25, 2023 | 5:00 PM

A new tool to encourage and empower youth in northern Saskatchewan will soon be coming to communities in the Meadow Lake Tribal Council (MLTC).

It’s all part of a new initiative and partnership between the Meadow Lake Tribal Council and the Saskatchewan Prevention Institute, a non-profit group that aims to prevent disabilities like Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.

Dale Apesis is the Youth Action for Prevention Co-ordinator with the organization and said this partnership started roughly two years ago with the English River First Nation. They tested Youth Councils in the community and gathered feedback from youth and adults.

“The Youth Council was to focus on creating healthy conversations amongst their peers and adults to mitigate alcohol risk amongst their lives that could impact their health and well-being within the community,” he said.

Apesis said a similar program called the Northern Youth Action for Prevention Program used to operate in La Ronge, but communities were looking for other ways to support youth engagement on topics like alcohol reduction and the harms associated with consuming alcohol such as FASD.

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That’s when the idea of creating Youth Councils came up and conversations were had with the MLTC.

“We decided that this was the best way to go forward in terms of providing training and resources to assist their implementation as well as providing financial support so they can achieve the goals that we identified in making this a success.”

Youth in the councils will work with a mentor but ultimately, the youth decide how each will be run and how the conversations will go.

“It’ll still revolve around the concept of a youth council so they can start implementing their ideas and suggestions with the mentor,” he said.

Ultimately, Apesis said the northern communities will benefit the most from these youth councils.

“The more youth are involved through their community, the more engaged they are in their community. They will be a lot more successful, and they’ll have that sense of belonging and that sense of ownership and that they’re validated.”

“Adults are such a key ingredient in making these things successful because they have that advantage to provide space, to provide mentorship, to provide guidance, to provide direction, but also to have that compassion and that empathy and all those other traits that goes into this to this project.”

Apesis didn’t have a firm timeline on when the youth councils will start but said they are working with the communities in the MLTC to implement them.

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cjnbnews@pattisonmedia.com