Engaging and empowering aboriginal youth a toolkit for service providers

Summary: Not a week goes by without a negative news story reporting the rates of problem behaviors among Canada's Aboriginal youth. These statistics don't tell the whole story, and the paradigm must shift from focusing on deficits to a more strengths-based approach. Engaging and Empowering Aboriginal Youth presents a wide range of guidelines, strategies, templates, and case studies for those who work with Aboriginal youth. Divided into five sections, this toolkit provides a historical context for understanding the challenges facing Aboriginal youth and makes a case for the importance of building youth engagement and empowerment; offers a series of assessment tools to help identify the starting point for change; identifies four key tenets of effective programming with Aboriginal youth: understanding and integrating cultural identity, increasing youth engagement, fostering youth empowerment, and establishing and maintaining effective partnerships; highlights challenges and opportunities in working with partners in the educational system; offers a range of considerations for program evaluation and other types of research. A guide for frontline service providers, facilitators, educators, community partners, and researchers to adapt or develop programs, Engaging and Empowering Aboriginal Youth combines conceptual guidelines and practical strategies.

Record details

ISBN: 9781426904295
ISBN: 1426904290
Physical Description: print
iv, 119 p. ; 28 cm.
Publisher: [Bloomington, Ind.] : Trafford, c2009.

Content descriptions

Formatted Contents Note:

Overview: The Case for Strength-Based Programming -- Prevention / Health Promotion Spectrum -- Universal versus Culturally Specific Risk and Protective Factors Associated with Violence -- General Best Practice Violence Prevention Principles -- Principles for Successful Programming for Aboriginal youth -- Overview of Principles -- Section 2 Guiding principles -- Principle 1 Understanding And Integrating Cultural Identity -- Cultural Identity: Whose Culture? -- Language Matters -- Cultural Identity: 10 Considerations and Strategies -- Principles into Action Case Study: Canadian Red Cross ~ Walking the Prevention Circle -- Principle 2 Increasing Youth Engagement -- Heart of Youth Engagement: Meeting youth where they are at -- Principles into Action Case Study: Nimkee NupiGawagan Healing Centre -- Engaging Youth at the Program Level -- Principles into Action Case Study: CRU Youth Wellness Centre -- Strategies for Engaging Youth at the Program Level -- Strategies for Engaging Youth (Cont.) -- Principles into Action Case Study: New Direction's TERF Program -- Ethical Guidelines for Youth Engagement in Organizations -- Youth Engagement-Organizational Audit -- How Do We Involve Youth in Organizations? -- Youth Engagement at the Organizational Level: What is the Role of Adults? -- Benefits of Adults as Allies -- Principle 3 Fostering Youth Empowerment -- Creative Ideas for Youth Community Action -- Principles into Action Case Study: NWAC Violence Prevention Toolkit Project -- Finding Your Vision, Finding Your Voice: A First Person Perspective on Culturally-Informed Empowerment -- Principles into Action Case Study: BCYSTH Aboriginal Capacity Cafe -- Youth Empowerment through Mentoring -- Examples of Culturally Relevant Mentoring Programs -- Principles into Action Case Study: DND - Junior Canadian Rangers Programme -- Importance of Recognizing Youth Strengths and Accomplishments -- Leadership Opportunities through Organizations with Youth Groups -- Principles into Action Case Study: RCMP-Aboriginal Pre-Cadet Training Program -- Principle 4 Establishing And Maintaining Effective Partnerships -- Considerations for Developing Partnerships -- Partnerships in Action--Accessing Elders -- Caring across the Boundaries Initiative -- Section 3 Opportunities and challenges in school-based prevention programming -- Working with Schools -- What Can Schools and School Boards Do? -- What Can Educators Do to Better Engage Aboriginal Youth? -- What Can Educators Do? Honouring Aboriginal Learning Styles -- Capacity Building with Educators -- Levels of Integration of Multicultural Content -- Suggested DVD Resources on Aboriginal Issues, Identity and History -- Programming Integrated into the School Setting -- Checklist for Identifying Areas of Alignment with School Board Policies and Initiatives -- Principles into Action Case Study: The Fourth R: Uniting Our Nations -- Engaging Aboriginal Parents in the School System -- Principles into Action Case Study: Violence is Preventable Project and Aboriginal Students -- Section 4 Research and evaluation -- What are Indigenous methodologies in community research? -- Considerations for Researchers--The Big Picture -- Additional Considerations for Researchers -- Ethical Considerations--OCAP Principles -- Research and Evaluation Considerations -- Building Blocks of An Evaluation -- Important Considerations for Interviewers -- Engaging and Empowering Youth through Research -- Challenges in identifying the impact of prevention programs -- Appendix A About the Authors -- Appendix B Project Partners -- Appendix C Project Contributors -- Appendix D Toolkit Reviewers -- Appendix E Program Contact Page - Case Studies -- Appendix F Glossary -- Appendix G Acronyms.