Expanding First Nations opportunity: employment program engages First Nations youth in forestry training.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay
• Position: Forestry

Sixteen years after launching, the First Nations Natural Resources Youth Employment Program is in expansion mode.

The program engages First Nations youth aged 16 to 19 from around the North to live and work for six weeks at a facility operated by Outland Camps. There they learn about forestry, archaeology, geography, dendrology, sustainable energy sources, entrepreneurship, Aboriginal mentorship, and more, while being paid to do hands-on work for the camp.

Since its inception, the program has graduated 355 participants, and many go on to post-secondary education or careers in industry.

"We know for sure we're saving a lot of kids," said Dave Bradley, the regional manager for Outland's Thunder Bay office. "It's breathing new life into them. It's transformational for them."

Since 2000, the camp has operated with one location near Sandbar Lake Provincial Park, and this year, the program was expanded to a second location near Quetico Provincial Park, geared specifically toward youth from the Mink Lake First Nation.

Bradley was instrumental in founding the program; the idea was sparked from a conversation with forestry industry partners Weyerhaeuser and Bowater about the need for engagement with the First Nations communities in the areas in which they operate.

"We were all kind of lamenting the fact that it was hard to get traction in the communities," Bradley said. "The companies were working hard to try and build capacity and bring the communities into actively engaging in the economic opportunity around forestry, whether it was the logging side, or even in the mills."

The program launched in 1999, and in 2003, during an industry downturn, Confederation College was brought on as a partner. That same year, the Ministry of Natural Resources committed $200,000 in annual core funding to the project.

Since then, a number of industry partners have additionally signed on, contributing financial and practical assistance. This year, Lakehead University has been brought on as a second educational partner to help facilitate the Mink Lake expansion.

Bradley said the program has gained a reputation as a positive experience for participants, and he's found allies in community teachers, band leaders and parents, who recognize the value of their youth participating.

The difference in the youth following graduation from the program is palpable. After six weeks following the regular rhythm of a workday--early bedtimes, hard work, eating healthy meals, learning...