Video uses role models to encourage youth

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A new video featuring three successful youth may be just the tool to help teenagers stay focused on achieving their dreams.

Strength of Spirit profiles three Aboriginal youth who tell their stories of success in a 45-minute movie, which aired for the first time on the Saskatchewan Communications Network (SCN) March 11.

"It's about the importance of community and providing kids with adequate support," said Monica Goulet, a community education consultant with Saskatchewan Learning, who brought the project to life.

Two of the young people profiled, Michael Linklater and Megan Start, were suggested for the video by administrators in the school division.

"Michael of course is a young basketball athlete, but also a very well rounded young man. He's very connected to his culture, participates in sweats and has never smoked and has never drank, and is now in university in North Dakota," said Goulet.

"Megan now is in her second year of university and she was selected because she was a single mom. She's of Metis ancestry. She was also in an abusive relationship where her boyfriend battered her, so she talks about that in the video. And she talks about the importance of having access to childcare."

The third person featured is Krystle Pederson.

"She's becoming a nationally recognized singer," Goulet said. "She has fetal alcohol effects and was raised by her biological uncle-her mom's brother-and his wife. They adopted her and discovered that she had this marvelous singing voice, and just loved to sing and dance ever since she was little. In the video we feature some excerpts from the (home) videos where she's singing and dancing, and she's just adorable."

Goulet said those youth "obviously had more support than the average child," but she "also wanted to tell the story of young people who don't enjoy that level of support because of addictions and so on."

To get that perspective, the producers went to a Peacekeepers' camp, co-hosted by the Saskatoon Tribal Council and Saskatoon Police Services, and interviewed several youth.

"The purpose of the camp is to connect youth that are in conflict with the law with their backgrounds and cultural teachings. And also it provides them an opportunity to connect with the city police in a more positive setting so that they can try to help them break the cycle getting into trouble," Goulet explained.

She said the idea of making the movie came out of brainstorming with her colleagues. "There were a number of people in the system that were concerned about the Aboriginal kids that were falling through the cracks and were not able to succeed. So I pulled together a committee of people that were involved in film and also some principals in the system, and a few other people who had an interest and commitment to assisting Aboriginal youth to be more successful in education," she said.

"In the video we thought we would profile Aboriginal youth that were successful so that other Aboriginal youth could learn from their peers."

It took $30,000 and four years to finish the project because the people involved all had full-time jobs and worked on the video in their spare time. The project was funded by the Indian and Metis Education Development Fund, Saskatchewan Learning, Saskatchewan Lotteries, the Saskatoon Tribal Council and the Interprovincial Association on Native Employment.

The movie length will be adapted for classroom use, said Goulet, who is now in the process of finalizing a study guide to be released at the end of April. The study guide is meant to be used with the video and will contain brief descriptions of each of the youth featured, as well as discussion questions and follow-up activities.

"Although we're developing a study guide that I expect will be used primarily by educators in the classroom, I suspect there will be people in health services and justice as well that will be using it, and people in the arts community," Goulet said.

She explained that the videois suitable even for elementary school children. "It can be used as early as, I think, at about Grade 3 level. In fact, there were kids that looked at the video when I was showing it at Joe Duquette high school and their comments were 'I wish somebody would have shown me this video when I was younger. I probably wouldn't have gotten into so much trouble.' So there were kids already at a high school level that were recognizing the importance of early intervention and early education."

The exact price will be set up after the guide is finished, but the complete kit will likely sell for between $20 and $40, Goulet said. It will be available for purchase in May.

Goulet said she might set up a foundation to distribute the kit and collect the funds. "Ultimately, what I would like to see happen is that the proceeds from the sale of the video would go back to young people that are still struggling."

For more information phone Monica Goulet at (306) 933-8156 or (306) 260-7405.