Workshops to help link youth and volunteer sector

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The First Nations Child and Family Caring Society (FNCFCS) is looking for First Nations youth from across the country to get involved in Caring Across the Boundaries: Youth Focus, a two-day workshop designed to help create understanding and co-operation between youth and the volunteer sector organizations that are there to serve them.

The society is inviting First Nations youth 15 to 30 to apply for a chance to co-host a workshop in their community. With the assistance of FNCFCS staff, the successful applicants will help organize the session, help run the workshop and help put together the list of individuals and agencies that will be invited.

The youth program is an adaptation of a series of workshops co-ordinated by the society in 2004 and 2005. Those workshops were aimed at building relationships between First Nations child and family service agencies and the voluntary sector.

Caring Across the Boundaries grew out of some research done by the FNCFCS in 2003, explained Jacqueline Ramdatt, co-ordinator of the program.

"The main outcome was that there was very little collaboration between First Nations child and family service agencies and voluntary sector agencies on reserve. But what was also positive was that it was found that both the voluntary sector and First Nations agencies on reserve were really wanting to collaborate," Ramdatt said.

"What was really needed was mutual education because these voluntary sector agencies really didn't have a sense of what the issues were facing children and families on reserve and likewise, a lot of the First Nations agencies didn't know what the voluntary sector agencies did or what services they could provide and which ones even existed in their area. And so these workshops were developed as an opportunity to provide mutual education and networking opportunities and also a way to come together to identify ways to overcome some of the barriers that were brought up, such as time, distance, lack of knowledge, that sort of thing. And also it's a place where people can start the preliminary development of collaborative initiatives."

The six workshops that were held in 2004 and 2005 resulted in a number of agencies developing closer ties. For example, Xyolhmeylh Child and Family Services and Scouts Canada in Vancouver have come together to talk developing a mentorship program for First Nations children and youth, and Scouts Canada in Dorval, Que. is working with Kahnawake Shaikotiia'takenhhas Community Services to arrange programming for some of the children the agency works with.

"I found that it's really been a powerful way to break down a lot of stereotypes or misconceptions that people have had on both sides. And just being able to meet face to face has been a really powerful thing also. Like having First Nations service providers in child and family services meet their contemporaries in the volunteer sector and vice versa," Ramdatt said. "There's a lot of time within the workshop to talk and get to know each other and what each agency does. So I've found just providing that forum has been, right away, just breaks down that initial barrier of not knowing,"

The youth version of Caring Across the Boundaries was created when two youth participants in those original workshops, Ginger Gosnell from the Nisga'a and Kwagiuluth Nations in B.C. and Melanie Ferris from Long Plain First Nation, Man. saw an opportunity for youth to benefit from the program, and worked with Maggie Kovach, an assistant professor a the University of Victoria, to adapt the curriculum, incorporating a youth focus.

"The impetus really came from the young people saying, 'OK, this is a great program, but we really need one that's also targeted to young people that really talks about the value of volunteering and how that can support community and how we as young people can get involved with that.'" said Jordan Alderman, an instructor with the program. The goal of the revised curriculum,she said, is both to explain to volunteer sector organizations what its like to be a young person on reserve, and to help First Nations youth find out more about the voluntary sector, what volunteering has to offer and how they can get involved.

The youth focus workshops will follow the same format as previous workshops. On the first day, First Nations youth will spend half a day learning about the voluntary sector and voluntary sector representatives will spend half a day learning about First Nations youth. On the second day, the two groups will get together for a collaborative workshop.

A train the trainer session will also be part of the youth focus program, coming at the end of the year. Through that session, it's hoped that the youth who acted as facilitators for the four previous sessions will attend and then go back to their communities with the skills and experience they need to co-ordinate and hold additional workshops.

"It's really about building capacity in the community and providing the resources and tools to do that," Alderman said.

In addition to the four youth focused workshops, the society has also received funding to hold another six workshops for First Nations child and family service agencies and is inviting inquiries from agencies interested in co-hosting an event.

For more information about Caring Across the Boundaries visit the FNCFCS Web site at www.fncfcs,com, or call (613) 230-5885.