Youth work camp set to open in Desmarais

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Wet weather and sloppy conditions have slowed the progress for building an Aboriginal youth work camp near Desmarais, north of Athabasca.

According to Alberta Justice spokesperson Leslie Gronow, "there's not too much information just yet, we are just finalizing some things. It's been a little delayed because of the weather."

The camp is blue-printed to house up to 10 Aboriginal youth who have had run ins with the law.

The camp is designed to counsel the misguided youth.

Gronow said elders will be members of the camp staff and will teach spirituality and culture to the young offenders.

Selection of inmates for the camp will be made on an individual basis, she said.

Most will be from the Wabasca/Desmarais area and Northern Alberta.

She said sentencing a youth to the camp could be done from a court house level, but the majority will be screened from the Edmonton Young Offenders Centre.

The basic idea for the camp is to give Aboriginal offenders a chance to see the error of their ways from people more closely associated with their cultures.

The camp is expected to employ nine permanent staff, including a director, case workers, a security officer, counselors and administration.

Allan Beaver, an addictions counselor at the Native Counseling Services in Wabasca, said the wet weather might not be the only thing that has slowed the process.

"There's been some fighting (within the community). There's negatives and positives to it."

He said the camp needs to be handled correctly if it is going to work.

"It's not going to be as easy as some think," he said.

Beaver said the people in the community who are organizing the work on the camp have to make sure they are looking at the whole picture.

"They are dealing with a lot of youth with a lot of issues and they have to be helping them to get a healthy life."

In order to teach someone a better way of life, the teacher himself has to be "well," said Beaver.

He hopes that all the people involved are spiritually and physically healed themselves before trying to help others.

The community, he said will put a lot of faith into the new centre, but it has to be built on a good, strong foundation.

"The people in the community are praying that everything will work out," he said.

Currently, the community is split, he added.

Many feel there should have been more public input into the camp.

As it is now, a committee was selected to work on the idea. The community as a whole had little involvement, said Beaver.

In the months to come, if the committee can prove to the community that all plans and details have been carefully laid out, the camp could be a benefit to the people.

Alberta Justice has a timeline of "a few months" before any camp structures will appear on the land approximately 20 km. outside of Desmarais.