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The third annual National Youth Conference, held in Edmonton April 26 to 29, was the largest ever, but organizers look to continued growth in 1995.
Dennis Arcand, conference founder, co-ordinator and chairman, is planning to invite American youths to the next conference, and sees that, and greater Metis participation, leading to further growth.
Just under 900 young men and women, aged 14 to 20, were in attendance for the three-day event at the Coast Terrace Inn this year. They came from each western province, the territories, Ontario and Nova Scotia. That's up from 500 in 1992 and 600 in 1993. And it's a huge step from Arcand's idea to somehow carry on his father's work with kids.
"My father always worked with youth," Arcand said. "And about six years ago, he went to Montana for a workshop looking into his heritage. He came back a day early and had bought a new pair of boots. But he died the next days, and those boots seem to be to be a symbol of what he would have wanted to do.
"After a while," he continued, "I thought of the idea of a conference to benefit Native youth, so I went out and knocked on a lot of doors, and finally came up with some backing."
That was the Yellowhead Tribal Council, made up now of five reserves: Alexander, Alexis, Enoch, O'Chiese and Sunchild. Their education department is involved in post-secondary schooling, and the YTC is also involved in providing health care within its system. When Arcand approached them with a plan to further education and cultural awareness for their youths, as well as those from across Canada, they warmed to the idea. The YTC is a major sponsor.
Conference delegates have access to a career fair and high-quality presentations about health and education concerns. The conference focuses on youth issues, with keynote speakers addressing the whole assemblage, then breaking down into smaller groups for more intense seminars on such things as art, science, math trivia, rediscovery, nutrition, staying in school and teen sexuality. They also touch on more contentious problems including racism - "from both sides," peer counseling, drugs and alcohol and teenage suicide.
The energetic Arcand has drawn together talents from both the fiscal and conceptual worlds to put the conference together. This is reflected in the makeup of the steering committee, which has members from all over. There are five original members left on the committees: Leith Campbell, a Native affairs consultant with Edmonton Catholic Schools; Marilyn Caskey, a counsellor with Employment and Immigration Canada; Joe Whitford a regional adviser for health and careers with Health and Welfare Canada; Greg Dreaver, a peak performance system program development officer, and Arcand himself. These volunteers were joined by seven others this year.
Participants praised the three-day conference. Cody Hodgson, a 20-year-old university transfer student from Enoch hoping to attend Arizona State University on a football or track scholarship, found the conference a good place to make connections.
"It's a great conference to meet people, to go to the various events and to attend the various sessions. This kind of week allows us to work towards becoming a team, to improve our self esteem, to help our own youth at home on the reserve, to get a grasp on what's going on and what we, as youth, want to do," he said. Hodgson plans to pursue a career in marine biology or medicine.
Corinne Goulet, the 21-year-old Metis role model for Alberta Metis from Gift Lake, was an invitee and guest speaker. She was enthusiastic about the potential to improve Metis awareness and Aboriginal educational in general, things she spoke to the whole assembly about on the Friday morning.
"The best thing about the conference isn't the speakers, though," she said. "It's the individual work sessions that are going to involve the kids more."
She graduated this spring from Red Deer College and plans to start in recreation administration at te University of Alberta in the fall.
The hope of conference organizers is that participants take back some of what they learn and apply it at home.
"It's not so much learning, says Arcand, "as learning about learning. The conference isn't teaching them things they'll learn in school. They've already got access to that. What we want to do is to give them a better chance to make use of what they have, in school and in life."
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