Pearl Lorentzen
Local Journalism
Initiative Reporter
Three First Nations north of Lesser Slave Lake are looking to recruit youth from their communities to join an advisory council for a youth leadership and life skills program.
“We knew that we wanted a youth advisory as soon as we started developing,” says Kirsta Auger, youth leadership and life skills coordinator and a research analyst with the KTC Child and Family Services.
On May 15, 2023, Kee Tas Kee Now Tribal Council started protecting children in three of its First Nations under its own law, cites a Slave Lake Lakeside Leader article Loon River, Lubicon, and Peerless Trout enact child welfare law. It is called under the Awas’ak Wiyansiwêwin (Children’s Law) and applies to on and off reserve members of Loon River First Nation, Lubicon Lake Band, and Peerless Trout First Nation.
Children’s Law is run by KTC Child and Family Services. It has four on-reserve and three off-reserve offices. The on-reserve offices are in Loon Lake, Little Buffalo (Lubicon), Peerless Lake, and Trout Lake. The off-reserve ones are in Slave Lake, Peace River, and Edmonton.
Part of this new law is navigation centres in each on-reserve community to provide support and recreation to help keep children with their families. This is to prevent the need for child services to intervene. One of these programs has to do with youth leadership and life skills.
Auger was involved in drafting the law and is now working to implement the youth program.
Auger is a member of one of the First Nations and grew up in Slave Lake. In the 1950s, Auger’s grandparents moved from Trout Lake to Slave Lake, where they raised their kids and Auger was born. In the 1990s, her grandparents moved to Lubicon, which was where they lived during Auger’s childhood.
For about 10 years, Auger lived in Edmonton studying social work and working with youth. She has returned to Slave Lake to raise her kids and works out of the KTC Child and Family Slave Lake office. She went into social work to work with youth.
“I had a base draft of what I wanted this program to be back in 2020,” says Auger.
“I had a vision even before we created the law and started getting feedback from the community,” she adds.
In May 2024, KTC Child and Family Services started hiring community navigators and offering programs. Each on-reserve community will have one navigator. Auger is out of the Slave Lake office and her assistant Mark Cardinal works in Trout Lake.
Advisory council
The youth leadership and life skills program is for youth aged 12 to 28 years.
Asked about the age range, Auger says, “under 18, that’s a western concept of youth.”
When creating the definition for the program, she adds, KTC Child and Family looked at what age men left home, because women tended to leave earlier. This was in their late 20s or early 30s.
People tend to still need a lot of support well into their late 20s, says Auger.
“We’re trying to give youth in this age group the tools and skills to be successful,” says Auger.
The idea with the youth advisory council is to recruit on- and off-reserve youth in this age group to help design the program.
Throughout creating and implementing the law, KTC Child and Family has had advisory councils. However, “so far, it’s just been Elders,” says Auger.
The goal with the youth council is to have nine or 10 youth: two on-reserve from each First Nation, and one off-reserve member from each nation. The members will meet monthly in a rotation between communities, mostly on reserve. Off-reserve members can attend the meetings virtually.
To apply, youth can contact Auger, Cardinal, or one of the navigators by email (c92info@ktccfs.ca),
phone, or in person.
“Tell us about yourself and why you would want to join the committee,” says Auger.
“It’s important for youth to have a voice,” says Auger.
“I’m hoping that with a youth advisory, we can start listening to them,” she adds.
The committee members will be chosen by the Elders advisory council. Some of them don’t speak much English, so the applications will be translated for them into Cree.
The program
The youth leadership program offers cultural programs, sports, employment information, addiction awareness, healthy living information, sexual health, mentorship, and workshops on various other topics.
“Everything we need to teach our youth needs to be talked about,” says Auger.
For example, some young women had asked for sex ed, because they didn’t know how you got pregnant until they were pregnant.
“I’m hearing from youth that we need to be taught this,” says Auger.
Addictions (especially to methamphetamine) and suicide are other common threats, she adds.
However, they aren’t talked about.
“We’re losing lots of our youth to suicide,” says Auger.
Each community has slightly different programs, depending what is already offered.
For example, Loon River already has quite a bit of youth activities, says Auger, which are focused on Cree culture, but less sports and arts.
The project kicked off with a trip to a conference in Edmonton. Over the summer, the team organized weekly drop-in volleyball, participation in Treaty Days culture days, fishing, and offered a firearms course, etc.
These communities are remote, with not a lot of services. For instance, one of the families in Loon River drives about two hours several times a week for their child to play hockey in Peace River.
To the south, Slave Lake is about the same distance from Loon River. Lubicon is between Loon and Peace River. Peerless, the closer of the two Peerless Trout communities is another hour northeast of Loon.
Access to recreation and services is a big barrier, says Auger.
These communities don’t have a rec centre or indoor skating rink. Most of the programs are run out of the school gyms.
Lubicon doesn’t even have a corner store, adds Auger.
“We have lots of barriers in the nation,” she adds.
Two of the biggest for people using the local offices and programs are transportation and babysitters.
The population on the reserves is small, but the houses are spread out, and not everyone has their own vehicle.
It could take someone 40 minutes to walk from their home to the KTC Child and Family office, Auger says.
There is also support off-reserve and for children.
KTC Child and Family has a recreational wellness program for children five and older. This organizes on-reserve activities and has grants for off-reserve members to help with the costs of recreation.