When I lived in Ottawa, I worked for several years as a policy advisor with the Assembly of First Nations, the national representative organization of the First Nations in Canada. There are over 630 First Nation (ie. American Indian Tribes) communities in Canada.  While much of our work focused on more remote ‘on-reserve’ populations, I became well versed in the challenges faced by urban First Nations, Metis and Inuit residents as well.

This video looks at some of the challenge faced by First Nations, Metis and Inuit youth in Vancouver as well as some encouraging solutions.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYw1_d7LEDc

From Youtube:

This video was created by Redwire Native Youth Media as part of the Growing Up in Cities (Canada). The video was focused on the challenges faced by urban aboriginal youth, and the solutions youth themselves are finding to those challenges.

Growing Up in Cities (Canada) is part of a global effort to enlist the energy, ideas, and hope of young people to evaluate and research their own circumstances, define priorities, and affect positive change in their communities. It also enables municipal governments and child advocates to implement the participation principles of the Habitat Agenda, Agenda 21, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

GUIC Canada was a collaboration of 3 youth-led organizations—Redwire, Environmental Youth Alliance and Heartwood, a city youth program and a research agency. This video was the introductory video of a series of videos on the projects and tools used.