The leaders of tomorrow are the youth of today, but the Engaging Young Leaders program wants to push up the timeline. The program, run in partnership between the Yorkton Tribal Council and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Yorkton and Area, engages youth from the region to get them to tackle important issues their community face and find ways to address them. The group met recently to celebrate Christmas with some fun, but also have a serious discussion, with the youth putting forward what they want to see and what issues they want to tackle in the next year.
Kianna Kakakaway has been a member of the group for a couple years and contributed to their recent project, a film about missing and murdered aboriginal women, which provided advice to prevent young women like her from becoming a statistic. She feels that the group is important because it helps youth
step out of their comfort zone.
Amy Esquash is another member of the group. As part of the film project, she said that it has opened a lot of opportunities for herself and other group members, with chances to speak to the National Women’s Association and to take part in Indigenous Circle.
“Just having people hear our voices and hear what we have to say.”
The group gives youth the chance to speak about important topics and have their say, said Esquash, and that’s one of the reasons she feels it’s an important group to have.
“I feel like there are a lot of youth that have a lot to say and open up about and share and they might not get the chance to speak up and use their voice. This is opening up that door, letting them say what they want to say, and talk about the topics that youth should be talking about.”
Dominic White has also been a group member for two years, and he also contributed to the film. He feels that for the next project that the group takes on, it’s important to get their perspective on what they want to see.
“It’s supposed to be Engaging Young Leaders, so making the young people have a say in what we do and what issues we think need attention and what we need to be working on.”
White said that for him, the point of the group is to give young people a voice.
“A lot of youth feel like their voices aren’t heard, especially in an area like rural Saskatchewan where there’s not many outlets like this one where kids can talk about important issues that are on their mind.”
Part of the goal of planning was to put forward what issues the students want to tackle. For Kakakaway, she sees mental health and drugs and alcohol as being two topics that the group needs to take a closer look at, because it’s something she sees as a major issue for communities.
“We have a lot of problems like that in our reservation communities. That’s where some of come from,” said Kakakaway.
White agrees that mental health issues are something that young people need a voice on, pointing out that youth suicides are a major issue and they need to find ways to help people deal with issues and hopefully save lives.
White also believes that the group also needs to look at global issues like climate change.
“That could affect all of us and I don’t really think a lot is being done about that right now.”
