Youth role models gather at Ermineskin

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More than 300 young people and their 100 chaperones gathered at the Gathering Strength for a Healthy Future Conference in Hobbema on Aug. 18 to 20 to discuss issues surrounding such things as tobacco use, dating, sexual harassment, drug and alcohol addictions, and truth in media and advertising.

The conference, organized by the National Native Alcohol & Drug Abuse Program (NAADAP), hopes the participants will be able to bring the lessons they learned back to their communities and work along-side NNADAP workers with other young people.

"These kids are role models who want to do something for their communities," said Leiha Crier, a youth representative with the Samson Cree Nation. "The youth were hand-selected by NAADAP workers and community members that were viewed as role models. These youth have a desire to work with other kids on lots of issues that affect them. Each time I did my workshop, I would tell the kids that they would be doing what I was doing up here. We are giving them the tools to get them started and to be responsible on their own."

The four-day conference was held at the powwow grounds at Ermineskin and hosted youth from 29 of the 46 First Nation communities across the province.

Dustin Twin, a member of the conference planning committee, said the gathering was based on the Alberta Alcohol & Drug Addiction program called Expecting Respect.

"They'd used this program in non-Aboriginal communities and it was quite successful, so we decided to try it. So we modeled our training here at the conference based on the program, but we presented it with an Aboriginal setting and with Aboriginal Elders. It was excellent. The youth got something out of it. You can see the change in the youth from when they arrived to when they were leaving. I think that they will go back to their communities with a lot of hope."

Janice Chalifoux, another committee member, said the young people interacted with each other very successfully.

"We put a mixture of Treaty 7 youth with a mixture of Treaty 8 and Treaty 6 with the other areas so that they could meet and share ideas with each other, for them to see what is happening in each other's communities."

"One thing I noticed here at this conference is that the youth were really well-dressed and well-mannered," said Florence Large, a facilitator for the Healthy Sexual Boundaries workshop. "They will make good role models because they carry themselves well and proudly.

"My husband and I taught the youth on healthy dating. Most youth do not know how to date. They do not take the time to get to know one another, which is sad, because if they took the time to get to know one another their relationships would last a lot longer. Many of the older men and women should be teaching them these skills about dating, but some of them do not know how to date either. They seem to think that if they meet someone they have to go to bed with them right away, so these youth are seeing this and thinking, 'Well, if my uncle or my older brother are doing this then I guess it is alright for me too.' Hopefully, the youth will take home some of the things they've learned in this workshop, and I hope that they pass it on to the rest of the youth in their communities," she said.

Carleen LaRocque from Louis Bull First Nation in Hobbema said that she enjoyed the workshop on smoking.

"This is a good workshop because it is teaching the kids not to smoke. Although I don't smoke, I am still taking this workshop, because I play sports and I do not want to look old. A lot of women who smoke say they do it because they want to lose weight, but they are still overweight; so I will just continue to not smoke," she said.

RCMP officer Rob Haney and Maddie, a black Labrador retriever, gave conference participants a talk on sections of the Controlled Substance Act.

"There is a lot of peer pressure out there and if the youth go by the peer pressure, they are going to make bad decisions. But I think withparental guidance at home, teachers and the RCMP working as one group telling them that this is not right, hopefully they will make a better-informed decision and it will keep them on the straight and narrow as well. So at least if I tell them this is what happens under section 401 of the Controlled Substance Act, if they are in the possession of cannabis or cocaine, it is a possibility that they will go to jail for a while or in some cases not be able to travel out of the country with a drug conviction. If we can stop one of them, than that is important," Rob Haney said.

Chaperone Alfred Seeseequon from the Little Red River First Nation in northern Alberta said that it took 13 hours to drive to the conference for his group of 10 youth, two chaperones and two NAADAP workers.

"Some of the youth have never been out of our community before, so it is nice for them to meet other youth from different areas of the province and for them to bring back good ideas," he said.

"What this conference focuses on primarily is prevention and awareness for our communities, and we really need this," said Richard Running Rabbit, a facilitator from Siksika First Nation. "A lot of the youth know about prevention and awareness, but we are here to train these youth so that hopefully they will be able to teach other youth about these issues and hopefully there will be a ripple effect. I hope that we can build on this conference every year and that it will be bigger and better. It is pretty good.

"I did a workshop on tobacco because I can speak about it from experience. I wanted to make the youth aware of the negative implications that it has on our people. It is considered the Number one cause of death and disability in Indian Country. Illness ranges from asthma, stroke or cancer. It is not glamorous at all. What they put in cigarettes today is not what we used to use traditionally."