'I didn't realize I could have such a big impact': Katimavik focuses on reconciliation

After his best friend died in a snowmobileaccident in February, Ruben Dick started on a path of self-destruction, fuelled by depression and substance abuse.

Concerned family members encouraged Dick, 23, to apply to the Katimavik Indigenous Youth in Transitionprogram. He agreed because it would provide him with the opportunity to create a better future for his infant daughter Delayna.

"People wanted me out of my community because I was going through a really tough time," Dick said.

Since 1977, Katimavik has been providing skill-building programs and work experience for Indigenous youth across Canada. Now the organization has partneredwith the Tlicho government in the Northwest Territories and the Cree Regional Authorities in Quebecto allow Indigenous youth to develop skills for post-secondary education and employment.

For thepilot project, eight youth are livingin Reginaand another eightin Peterborough, Ont., for five months.

Allthe youth staying Regina are First Nations from the Tlicho region.They workon a rotating schedule volunteering for organizations such as UR Pride andthe Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

• Katimavik relaunches with20-week program

In Peterborough, the participants come from Eeyou Istchee Nation in northern Quebec. The Cree youth spend four days a week volunteering at organizations such as the Peterborough Youth Emergency Shelterand the Peterborough Communication Support System.

Bothgroups are also enrolled in an introductory university programwhich they attend once a week. Afacilitator lives with them, co-ordinatingtheir activities and providingguidance.

"What we're trying to do is promote civic engagement through different forms, but the basis of that is volunteering in the communities," said AndyGarrow, theKatimavikdirector of youth development.

Katimavik shifts focus

Garrowwas brought onin 2014, when the organizationshifted its focusto Indigenous youth and reconciliation.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada final report in 2015called for the federal government "to establish multi-year funding for community-based youth organizations to deliver programs on reconciliation."

"We're going to have that big focus on truth and reconciliation, and we want to have foundational learning happen in every Katimavik house," Garrow said.

Katimavik will highlight the impact of colonization on Indigenous populations, said Garrow.

"They're going to learn about the contributions that Indigenous people have made in Canada."

The groups will learn about contemporary and local Indigenous issuesandhow they can make a difference through community placements.

"It's very much a youth development project where they are developing their own employment skills, personal skills and living skills," says Garrow.

For Rhonda Apples, of Behchoko, N.W.T.,Katimavikoffereda "once-in-a-lifetime experience." Apples, 20, has learned how to live with different types of personalities under one roof.

"Putting us all in one house, it's different lots of compromises, but we're doing great so far."

Apples hopes her time inKatimavik will help her in giving back to her communitythrough such programs assouthern trips for sports teams.

"I would really want to be dedicated to the kids back home because it's so different from [Regina] [here] we have so many opportunities but up north, it's kind of isolated," Apples said. "I want to be one of the stepping stones to that."

New healing through old practices

Damian Moar, 21, said he has released a lot of negative energy by taking part in the program.

The Peterborough-area Anishinaabe communities of Hiawatha, Curve Lake and Alderville have been open and accepting of thisCree youth, sharing traditional healing practices.

"I've never really done any smudging, I never knew about these cultural medicines," said Moar, who is volunteering as a fire keeper at the Trent University teepee.

"There's not a set way to start healing yourself I want to bring that back to my community," Moar said.

Katimavik has provided an opportunity for these youth to step away from their communities and to be immersed in the unfamiliar.

"Being in a new environment, away from home, away from everyone that we know, it's overwhelming at first just because we don't see the same faces," Apples said.

Participants are challenged emotionally and mentally, but support one another.

"We're a family here. Whenever one of us is struggling with something, if we're missing home, we just kind of gather up," Apples said in Regina.

"We're trying to keep each other strong during these next few weeks."

'Healing from the land'

The Harper government's 2012 budget cuts forcedKatimavikto scale back. But in the 2017 budget, the Liberals announced $105 million for youth service initiatives.Katimavikprogram managers hope this translates to additional funding for the organization.

"We're hoping that through that initiative we'll have some funding so we can restore our national program and begin having [more programs] in more communities across the country," said Garrow.

Dicksaid, "I didn't realize I could have such a big impact for the [Eeyou Istchee] Cree Nation."

After battling suicidal thoughts, Dick went to an institution in Montreal for treatment. Katimavik has inspired him to take new ideas to his community to help others who arestruggling.

"When I go home I want to open up a program where the [Eeyou Istchee] Cree Nation can go to get healing from the land," Dick said.

"I thought about it this way. I've looked out a window in a doctor's office and see buildings, but what if I can talk to a therapist on top of a mountain, looking out on the land?"