2021 YOUTH PROJECTS

Project Name

Revitalizing Our Sustenance

Project Description

Revitalizing Our Sustenance Project (ROSP) is a youth-led and focused program to help educate, sustain, reclaim, and revitalize Haudenosaunee (Hodinosoh:ni:) food sustainability and practices in the community of Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. The project will also provide Urban Indigenous youth and non-Indigenous youth the opportunity to help maintain the community garden and learn about Indigenous, Onkwehonwe, issues and identity regarding food sustainability. Involving non-Indigenous youth into ROSP will help Onkwehonwe youth make connections, new relationships, and understandings outside the Six Nations community. The idea of the project is building connections and understandings through food practice to help address the barriers between non-Indigenous and Indigenous Peoples in Canada. By implementing inclusive spaces to learn together evolves healthier relationships and ways of thinking for both Onkwehonwe and non-Indigenous participants.

Location

Six Nations
Bead and Breathe
Bead and Breathe is a series of workshops where youth will connect with one another on a virtual platform. We will be learning to bead lanyards while gaining cultural teachings and mindfulness techniques. The goal of this is to connect, heal and gain positive coping skills during these uncertain times. ​
Thunder Bay 
Indigenous Young Women and Femmes Project (IYWFP)
Support for young Indigenous women in Algonquin Territory or Ottawa by holding a virtual space for monthly women and femme sharing circles to check-in and stay connected to cultural teachings, during covid-19. The young women are encouraged to be creative and it is optional but materials will be provided to create bags for themselves. These bags may also be donated back to be given away to other young Indigenous women in the community that need feminine hygiene products or gift cards.
Ottawa
The Indigenous Support Project
An Indigenous youth led organization dedicated to connecting all Indigenous people across the world and integrating Indigenous traditional knowledge in all aspects of our organization. ​
Toronto
Grassroots Vision Making
This project is about grassroots groups and the work that they do. Through storytelling they share how they challenge Eurocentric colonial attitudes and healthy communities and healing. ​
Wikwemikong
Mashkiki gitigaanan
Mashkiki gitigaanan (medicine gardens) is a project supporting urban Indigenous people to grow and access medicines.
Toronto
Weehlalohkehtiit
Our project is aimed toward Lunaapeew youth in Eelunaapeewi Lahkehwiit. The collective goal is educate, inspire, and empower the next generation of lunaapeew leaders to create the future we want and deserve.
London
Pinaweego “Back in Time”
Pinaweego (Back in time) is a youth led project by two Anishinaabe Kwe's from Mahingan Sagahigan (Wolf Lake) First Nation. Over the course of the spring and summer months we will be clearing pathways that were travelled by our ancestors as a means of reconnecting with the land and our spirit, or sit with us and local Elders as they share stories of their childhood with us. We will also be documenting this work through video and podcasting to share the knowledge gathered with the community.
Wolf Lake First Nation
5th Annual A7G Round Dance ​
The round dance is a cultural gathering and memorial ceremony that is intended for us to gather and continue those friendships we have created throughout the years. We will have singers, vendors, elders, knowledge keepers, youth all be apart of this. We will hold this in the winter (February 2022) to create a space for community to gather ceremony and honour our loved ones. It's a time to remembrance and healing. It brings the community together to share songs, dance, foods and laughter. This round dance in particular has had a huge impact on the community in Ottawa. It has brought us all together in a really healing way. ​
Ottawa
Youth4Nature of Ontario
Bringing the regional perspective of Indigenous Peoples in Ontario to the international space of Youth4Nature, youth, elders and knowledge keepers will be compensated for the knowledge while bringing awareness to themselves, their communities and our peoples experiences with topics such as climate change, conservation, sustainability, environmentalism and more. Through a series of four webinars, four sharing circles and monthly TikTok takeovers youth worldwide will get a glimpse into the experiences of Indigenous Peoples in Ontario.
Ottawa

IBLV Dreamers Unconference

A community festival and unconference to build our capacity centering Black and Indigenous young leaders collaborating with YLC on the Spirit Spaces model. We aim to bring in over 100 participants to learn from around 35 grassroots movement leaders, change-makers, and community artists from across Ontario (Baawaating, Ottawa, Thunder Bay, Tkaoronto), over three-weeks of workshops, community circles, and artist showcases.
Sault Ste Marie 
Indigenous Resilience Consultation Services
I would like build a website and business to promote my workshops and speaking engagements as a social entrepreneur as social justice issues are extremely important to me the communities I am involved with. 
Ottawa
Garden River Youth Council
The Garden River Youth Council will be comprised of 6-10 youth that are Garden River First Nation band members from the ages of 14-30. The primary objective of the Youth Council is to promote community involvement with youth while providing youth with a safe space to voice their ideas, concerns, and opinions. The council will strive to be a diverse and inclusive group composed of on- and off-reserve members with different educational backgrounds and life experiences.
Garden River 
Garden River Community Food Security Project 2021: Trees, Shrubs, and Vines
The Garden River Community Food Security Project 2021: Trees, Shrubs, and Vines aims to provide long-term food security by gifting community members (both on and off-reserve) food-producing plants. The project will start with a community survey to gather data on local food security, what food-producing plants are desired, and geospatial information. Garden River First Nation has a long history of being a crop-producing community and this project will have cultural, environmental, and educational components.
Garden River 
Waasese: Movement with Meaning ​
This year's initiative will be an extension and updated version of the work I did with last year's grant with the Waasese Running Club. This initiative will be called Waasese: Movement with Meaning. This initiative is aimed at improving the physical wellbeing of any Indigenous person and is intended to allow people to think about how they can decolonize their movement through a series of physical activities. ​
Sudbury 
Building Our Bundle (Finding Our Power Together) 
Building Our Bundle program is designed to ensure that Indigenous young people from across Canada have the opportunity to connect to culture, mental health skills and a broader community. To ensure that we can reach as many people as possible our program aims to serve young people on a national level. FOPT has community partnerships with Nibinamik First Nation, Six Nations as well offer programs online so that a wider population can access our services and support.
Toronto
Young Leaders Circle (Finding Our Power Together) 
Oskatis Nigaaniiwemowin, which translates to the "The Way of the Young Leader" is the Anishinaabemowin name for FOPT's Young Leaders Circle. The Young Leaders Circle is a group of Indigenous young people between the ages of 14-29 from across Turtle Island who share a common interest in supporting youth in their communities. Through reciprocal sharing and teaching, the Circle supports its members to develop skills, explore challenges, and celebrate successes in youth life promotion work. The Young Leaders Circle meets seasonally engaging in networking, training, and cultural teachings, and maintains connection between seasons through peer-networking and one-on-one mentoring. ​
Toronto 
8th Gen Collective
We want to create an Indigenous space in our downtown core for Indigenous youth. This is to provide visibility for First Nation identities through art and mentorship through our artists. These youth will be shown how to create murals and go on to express themselves in the future through art and life. Too often there is only negativity of First Nations people in the media and misrepresentation, and we aim to help fix this issue.
Sudbury