Feather of Hope reaches out to help young people

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Life on the streets of the city is often referred to as the mean streets, because life on the streets often leads, for many young Aboriginal people, to self-destructive behavior that can lead to the deadly disease called AIDS.

The Feather of Hope, an Aboriginal AIDS prevention society in Edmonton, is focusing on reaching young Aboriginal people with the Mean Street youth outreach project.

"We want to start the Mean Street project for youth, especially after talking to former gang members who told us that some gangs have an initiation code that includes they knowingly have sex with someone who is infected with AIDS," said Jessica Daniels, frontline co-ordinator and office manager at Feather of Hope.

More of the newly-infected Aboriginal people who are accessing the programs at the Feather of Hope are between the ages of 17 and 22, said Daniels.

The Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network prepared a fact sheet that states Aboriginal AIDS cases are coming from the younger population with 31 per cent of those who have AIDS being under the age of 30, meaning they were infected in their late teens or early twenties.

"The reason why more youth are being infected is related to intravenous drug use and unprotected sex," said Daniels.

More young people are engaging in intravenous drug use because of the lack of support they may have in their lives from parents and from their community, stated Daniels.

"It is amazing what has been lost through residential schools, like parenting skills and communication skills. This is over generations. The youth don't have the integrity our ancestors had because of the losses suffered by generations of Aboriginal people," said Daniels.

A lot of Aboriginal young people are emulating the American black people's culture in their style of clothing, in the music and the language, said Daniels. It's the racism, the disenfranchisement, the lack of knowledge of Aboriginal history and culture, she said.

"We are thinking of starting a Cree-bonics language to give them back some of their identity," said Daniels. Ebonics was reported by the media to have been developed mainly in the ghettos by black Americans. The language used in many rap songs by black rap artists is also referred to as Ebonics.

"We base our teachings about AIDS on Aboriginal culture and that is something our youth may be missing in their lives. Our approach is community development and leaving an open door for communication to take place," said Daniels.