Janvier Pilot

With support from chief, council, and Métis Local President, OSLI worked with Janvier’s community influencers to arrive at a vision of working together toward a shared future. The community is supporting a youth-led, community development initiative designed to promote youth engagement, leadership and capacity building within the community. Everyone agrees youth are the key to the community’s success.

As a result of this collaborative work, the community formed a voluntary, non-profit board called Sekweha, which means “for the youth” in Dene/Chipewyan, the language of the Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation. Sekweha’s vision is to create a healthy, safe and sustainable community that helps children and youth gain the knowledge, confidence and skills they need to make a positive contribution to their own future and that of their community.

Sekweha provides the structure for developing youth-led projects in the community. Six community members sit on the Sekweha board. Collaborative partners have representatives as ex officio members of the board. These currently include: OSLI, the Northland School Division, Father R. Perin School (located in Janvier), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Health Centre.

Sekweha has developed a skilled group of youth within the community who are delivering activities and programming. Sekweha’s youth-led initiatives include:

• youth-operated summer culture camps;
• youth-to-elder outreach;
• development and operation of a youth centre and programs;
• youth-to-industry program; and
• StartSmart, a school program offered at Father R. Perin School