Vice Chief Bobby Cameron...

Vice Chief Bobby Cameron, with the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, and Louis Moubarak, president and chief executive officer for Canada World Youth, signed a memorandum of understanding July 11 that confirms their organizations’ commitment to get more First Nations youth involved in the CWY Program. “It’s about assessing the needs, understanding the needs and responding to the needs of Aboriginal youth so we can build good programming for Aboriginal youth in Saskatchewan and elsewhere in Canada,” said Moubarak. About 400 Canadians participate each year in the CWY programs, and that includes about 12 to 25 participants from Saskatchewan, “so it’s a good number but we would like to increase that,” he added. Last year out of the 19 CWY participants from Saskatchewan eight of the youth were First Nations and one was MÈtis. For the upcoming year, the number of youth from Saskatchewan is expected to be at similar levels with First Nations and MÈtis youth from Saskatchewan representing about 30 to 40 per cent of youth from the region. “What we are aiming for is to respond to the needs as to why there is not enough participants of Aboriginal youth,” said Moubarak. “So by having the buy-in from the community we can build on that and increase the number by putting more orientation sessions towards the youth.” Cameron said the new agreement will help to open doors for First Nations youth. He said it will help create opportunities for youth at a local level, regional level, and international level.