Foundation's goal to guide youth towards opportunities

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Helping young people learn from the best business and education mentors is the goal of the Foundation for the Advancement for Aboriginal Youth.

Organized by the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, it will serve as a link to guide Aboriginal youth toward opportunities available through higher, professionally relevant education.

"There is a great need for this foundation," said council chairman and Chief Executive Officer Patrick Lavelle. "The suicides of the Innu youth at Davis Inlet, the MicMac youth at Big Cove in New Brunswick and the young Crees of the Attawapiskat First Nations are but a few examples of the destitution that too many Aboriginal youth throughout Canada confront every day.

"FAAY is a concrete means of supporting the aspirations of young Aboriginal people who will contribute to the future economic and social development of their own communities."

The foundation will provide a journal of Aboriginal entrepreneurship; a speakers' resource group; a youth conference series; a business fellowship; a video stressing the importance and tangible benefits of staying in school; and a a new partnership initiative between corporations and qualified Aboriginal students.

In developing the Foundation, creator Brenda Maracle O'Toole aimed to provide the missing link between Canadian corporations, educational institutions and the young people of the First Nations.

"Aboriginal people need to know that education is the key to the future success and productivity of the First Nations in Canada," said the Mohawk from the Tyendinaga Reserve in Deseronto, Ontario.

"The private sector, educational institutions and Aboriginal people cannot singularly prepare Aboriginal youth for the challenges of the future. We need to work together to build a better future.

Corinne Mount Pleasant-Jette, a professor at the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science at Concordia University in Montreal and a member of FAAY's Education Round Table, sees the Foundation as a viable link in a productive future.

"The long-term vision of Aboriginal young peoples is often clouded by shadows of the past. FAAY seeks to clear away the misconceptions surrounding higher education and to ensure an unobstructed view of a successful productive future for people of the First Nations in Canada."

(CCAB is a national, non-profit organization that brings together Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people for mutually beneficial partnerships in employment, education, networking and business ventures. Through its chapters in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Toronto, it also provides Aboriginal employment services and cross-cultural training.)