Inclusion of youth important for friendship centres

At the heart of the Native friendship centres movement are Aboriginal youth, the fastest growing segment of the Canadian population.

“The Friendship Centre Movement has honestly changed my life,” said Jessie Johnson, Alberta representative on the National Aboriginal Youth Council. “My life is so different — I have a place where I belong all the time, I have so much more knowledge, I have Elders to talk to and I have so many people that are just rooting for me and rooting for all the youth in Canada.”

This youth focus is reflected in the services provided by local friendship centres and the political persona of the FCM is primarily youth-oriented, a concept heavily influenced by the National Aboriginal Youth Council, which is a governing body within the National Association of Friendship Centres.

Johnson initially became involved at her local centre in High Prairie where she served as a summer program coordinator and youth worker for a year. She was then elected to her position on the AYC, which she says exposed her to an “incredibly welcoming community.”

Former HPNFC employee and High Prairie youth Hope L’Hirondelle shares Johnson’s point of view.

“I believe that the youth of the friendship centres mainly need support and someone to believe in them as the friendship centres already do,” L’Hirondelle said. “No matter where you come from they will treat you as an equal individual and as a youth I’ve had this experience with the friendship centres at a national and local level — it’s an amazing experience going through that for the first time because you weren’t just a youth in their eyes, more like a future leader.”

But according to Johnson, the most crucial aspect of the movement and the programming implemented by centres involves inclusion of youth in decision and policy making.

“All friendship centres are for youth by youth, so the youth who have gotten involved provincially and nationally plan all of the conferences (and) all the workshops that go on,” she said. “Youth actually have a lot of say in what goes on.”

For instance, the AYC has developed a partnership with the Jordin Tootoo Foundation to introduce a suicide awareness initiative to address the growing numbers of Aboriginal suicide, especially in remote communities.