Two Carleton students are at the forefront of a new Ottawa-based program called ReachUp! North that aims to develop workplace and employment skills with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit youth.
Gabrielle Fayant and Leland MacLeod are both Carleton indigenous studies students working with Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT) and the Assembly of Seven Generations (A7G) to bring the international program to Canada.
ReachUp! North is a youth-led program that recruits interns to train aboriginal youth over a six-week cycle. The program intends to train about 45 youth in each cycle.
Since 2013 A7G, which was founded by Fayant, and DOT have been working to bring the program to Canada. ReachUp! has been successful in 14 other countries, but the Canadian version has an “aboriginal edge,” according to MacLeod.
Fayant said her experience with Carleton’s aboriginal support programs motivated her to help other aboriginal youth.
“I grew up really poor and in some really rough conditions and honestly I never, ever thought I could go university,” Fayant said.
She said she felt that way until she found the Aboriginal Enrichment Program at Carleton.
Fayant is currently completing her undergraduate degree part-time while working full time to put herself through school.
“The entire reason I do what I do is because of how I grew up, in poverty, and not having a lot of confidence or feeling good about myself or who I was as a Métis woman,” she said.
“If I can get out of that, then a lot of our youth can,” she said. “They just need the right support. It’s about them finding themselves and their passion.”
MacLeod is a sociology and indigenous studies student and is one of six interns with the ReachUp! North program.
He said his studies at Carleton gave him the opportunity to research his own family and their genealogy.
“I have an urge to learn about my past and my culture,” MacLeod said of why he got involved with ReachUp! North.
The first cycle of ReachUp! North is planned to begin by early November, MacLeod said.
The organization has been recruiting interns and youth to participate through partner organizations such as the Odawa Native Friendship Centre and the City of Ottawa.
“We hope that we realize the same type of impact that we have had around the world,” Grant Thomas, DOT vice-president, said. He added the program has reached over 800,000 youth internationally to date.
“We see people starting small businesses or starting new careers because of the injection of self-confidence. We fully anticipate that type of impact in Ottawa,” he said.
Both MacLeod and Thomas said they hope the program will expand to reach aboriginal youth in other areas of Canada such as Sudbury, Newfoundland and Labrador, and the North.
“It’s been a dream to bring it back to Canada and get it started here,” MacLeod said. “I hope to see a lot of empowered young people that encourage others to . . . start businesses and pursue education.”
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