Given that there has been no youth coordinator here for some years, the youth have had no structure or coordination of services.  As such, St’uxwtéws Bonaparte First Nation’s (SBFN) goal has been to connect with as many families as possible to begin building relationships through our St’uxwtéws Warriors and Mini Warriors Project. So far, in the VERY FIRST YOUTH SWEAT LODGE (SQILYE) EVER!  When sharing after the sweat, all youth communicated that they had a wonderful experience and were so happy to be connected to their culture in this way.  The youth felt confident enough to request a 5th round where they could sit independently and sing and drum and pray.  To facilitate their request for self-sufficiency, we stepped out and it was so beautiful listening to them make it their own.  Medicine Gathering with youth, watching them learn about the medicine in the different areas we travelled to was astounding, like sponges!  Moccasin making class was a huge success!  12 youth attended.  We held it on the land up at Loon Lake where there is no cell service and we held the class outside by the lake.  The kids were all engaged and focused hard to complete their Moccasins to take home with them!

We had a huge turnout for the parent dinner to begin registration for youth groups, we discussed content of curriculum, what the youth and parents wanted and needed.  We are excited about developing classes to meet these needs.  We have enrolled a large group of youth for the Secwepemc Child and Family Services Gathering and this includes one child who lost a parent to overdose last year.  We are happy to report that this youth attended the gathering and did SO well!  Building new friendships and learning to make regalia, sing, drum and more.  As well as another youth who is starting to go down a path that is not desirable, they attended and connected in a good way to their culture, and we were able to discuss what they need moving forward.  We have worked very hard in a short time to create some structure and to build relationships.  It takes time, but we are on the right path to assisting youth to build competencies which will prevent homelessness in the future.