Contracted Services with the Urban Negan Tepah served 140 youth in 2006-2007.
Multipurpose Aboriginal Youth Centre (UMAYC) through Heritage Canada
The Edmonton Inner City Youth Program Negan Tapeh (meaning, Looking Towards the Future) is made possible through a partnership between NCSA and the Inner City Youth Development Association. The Negan Tapeh component of the Inner City Youth Support program provides tools and opportunities for Aboriginal youth, whose lives are dominated by poverty, substance abuse, crime and violence, to move into more healthy and constructive pursuits. The goal of the project is to prepare Inner City Aboriginal youth, often labelled as "youth at risk" or "street youth" to complete secondary school, post secondary studies, or acquire gainful employment.
Success Story
A youth worker spoke of a former client who attended the Inner City High School. Through the Negan Tapeh Program, the youth client progressed towards positvely enhancing herself personally, socially and academically. Although she still experiences high levels of anxiety related to her school work, she takes her time to regain her composure and returns to class. Her improvements have proven to herself that everyone deserves a second chance.
Northern Ireland and Canadian Youth Exchange
A Partnership between Native Counselling Services of Alberta and YouCan
The Northern Ireland and Canadian Youth Exchange in partnership with YouCan brings together five Aboriginal and five non-aboriginal youth aged 16-19 years old in an exchange setting so that each can learn about the other culture. In Canada, there is inherent misunderstanding between the Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal people that has led to an atmosphere of mistrust and disrespect between the two groups.
This exchange attempts to uncover the misunderstanding between the groups and challenge the stereotypes that each is subject to so that the youth involved can deal with their differences and walk away with altered and hopefully improved perspectives about the other group.
The youth learn about conflict resolution processes in both Canada and Northern Ireland. This opportunity is educational and a life changing experience for all the participants. They will become more confident in themselves and more sensitive to the hopes and fears of other communities. They will make their own contribution towards peaceful solutions to conflicts and will assist in bringing the message of celebrating diversity to the communities they come from. The youth are also able to extend individual experience of the other culture and an appreciation of the cultural traditions of Canada. They build personal confidence, sensitivity to others and an ability to deal with conflict and hostility constructively.
After the trip, these ten youth will be encouraged to train and share their lessons learned with other Canadian youth through presentations and providing trainings. These youth will be encouraged to develop teams of youth in their community that will focus on conflict resolution, anti-racism issues and ethno cultural equality. This exchange takes place in each year in November and involves a cost. The participants are expected to fundraise a minimum of $500.00 (the exchange deposit) with a maximum of $1,500.00. The additional costs associated with the program are largely covered by our generous supporters so that this exchange can become a reality for the youth involved.
