The Whitefish (Goodfish) First Nation has began a Youth Employment Initiative to help young people from their community gain the employment skills through a partnership with the Town of St. Paul and businesses in St. Paul and area.
The talks on this plan started in August of 2015, and the program will help train students from Grades 9 through 12. They will receive opportunities to gain weekend employment with businesses in St. Paul such as Tim Hortons and McDonalds.
Rene Houle is the employment training project manager for this initiative and he is clearly excited to see the positive effect this program will have on the youth, and on the relationship between the Town of St. Paul and Whitefish Lake. Houle also presented letters of support from both Ashmont and Vilna school where many kids from Whitefish attend school. The development of the initiative also includes Portage College.
“We have very strong interest from our youth in this program, with 138 kids in that age group expressing interest in the program. The band teamed up with their training department to brainstorm avenues to develop the program.”
The collaboration of the two groups identified St. Paul as a potential partner because of its many businesses, as well as its geographical position, which makes it a neighbouring community to Whitefish.
The brainstorming also resulted in the planning of a presentation by the main drivers of this initiative on March 23 at 7 p.m. at the St. Paul Tribal Chiefs office. All St. Paul businesses are invited to attend and offer input to ensure the program is as effective as possible.
This program will also be holding a three-day training workshop from April 29 to May 1 to train all of the youth that are interested, followed by a recruitment day on May 7 where representatives from local businesses can come and meet the kids after their training is complete.
“During our training workshop, we will be training the kids on their work etiquette, work expectations, interviewing skills, career planning, alcohol and drug awareness, written plans, employer expectations, labour standards, budgeting, communications and other all-around training to ensure that the students involved in the program are prepared to enter the work force now and after they graduate,” says Houle.
Whitefish Lake Chief Brian Favel was excited about the opportunities the program presented for youth in his community, as well as building on the relationship with St. Paul.
“Developing a strong relationship between Whitefish Lake and St. Paul is very important. St. Paul has a lot of services and businesses that we do not have in our nation, which means that people from our nation are often travelling to St. Paul to take advantage of these services,” said the chief.
“This also means that St. Paul has more opportunities when it comes to employment, which we hope will translate into employment for our youth after they have received training.”
Favel added that with the economic conditions that Alberta is currently facing, everyone could use some help, especially youth looking to get into the work force.
“In this economy, we all need to work together to survive, and our youth will need all the help they can get when it comes to finding employment in a harsh economic environment such as this one. Creating a stronger relationship between the town and our nation will only be aided by this program and of course the kids will get a huge benefit from it.”
The organizers of the initiative encourage all St. Paul businesses to participate in this program. Houle added that Whitefish has determined that it can provide transportation to and from its community for the kids to come to work on weekends.
