Young woman represents youth

Page 6

The transition between teenager and adulthood for Raelene Carter has been spent travelling across Canada while juggling parental responsibilities.

Now completing her two-year term as the youth member of the board of directors for the National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC), those responsibilities bring Carter, a resident of Onion Lake, to Ottawa once a month.

One of the things Carter is involved in as a member of the executive is efforts to lobby the federal Department of Canadian Heritage to renew funding for the Urban Multipurpose Youth Centre Initiative. The initiative is designed to help fund creation of a network of urban multi-purpose youth centres, which can provide Aboriginal youth with access to community-based and culturally relevant programs and services.

As part of the lobbying effort, Carter is involved in preparing proposals and meeting with representatives of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

As the youth representative on the NAFC executive, Carter provides a young person's perspective on issues such as the funding renewal, explaining how decisions made will have an impact on Aboriginal youth.

"I'm the youth's voice," she said.

As youth representative, Carter also acts as a spokesperson at conferences throughout Canada. Last year she was responsible for covering British Columbia and the Yukon, but this year, her responsibilities are closer to home-she is now the NAFC provincial representative for Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

What she has noticed in her journeys as a member of the NAFC executive is that the issues facing Aboriginal people are the same no matter where she travels across the country.

"The problems we face today are the same as in the 1980s (before the latest population boom) except that it's worse in health care. If we're not prepared to educate, we are at the biggest risk to contract HIV," Carter said.

While, at the age of 24, Carter may be older than many of the youth she works to represent, she is still in touch with many of the issues facing younger First Nations people.

A single mother at 19, she had a second child, at 22, with her husband Darin.

"Going through the process as a young, single mother I have never been without a job. The first and foremost thing to do (for young parents) is to take care of yourselves and to be healthy spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically."

When Carter completes her two-year term as youth representative in July, she will become the first person in the position who has managed to complete the entire term. She credits that in part to her husband, her two children, Jaeden, 5, and Bryton, 2, and her parents, who have all provided her with the support that has allowed her to spend as much time away from home as she has.

Her efforts as a spokesperson and executive member haven't gone unnoticed. Judith Moses, executive director of the NAFC, is thrilled with Carter's performance, especially in light of her family commitments.

"We're extremely pleased of the contributions Raelene has made in her meetings with government ministers and the private sector. She's conducted herself well," Moses said.

Meeting with Members of Parliament and federal decision-makers is a long way from Carter's initial involvement with Native friendship centres. Four years ago, Carter was a staff member and president of the youth council at the Lloydminster NFC, although her involvement in friendship centres started at a much earlier age.

"My mom was the founding member of the Lloydminster centre and it started in my basement when I was four years old. So I've been a part of this for 20 years. But only in the last four have I had an extreme responsibility in the movement," said Carter.

When she isn't on the road and can finally spend time back in Onion Lake, Carter is also a youth worker at the Mewasin Youth Centre, which provides a place where teens can go to get involved in programs, or just get together and hang out. It's important to promoe and fund youth centres like Mewasin, Carter believes, because such centres can help keep kids away from trouble.

Once she finishes her term with the NAFC, Carter is planning to enroll at the University of Alberta. She hopes to study sociology, and eventually law. However, she has no regrets about her decision to postpone her post-secondary education. The experiences of holding executive positions and constantly meeting people have provided her with an insight into life no textbook could have.

"I've learned more about politics and policies in the last four years, about education and health care, than I would have in university," she said.