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Decent Work for Youth: Urban Indigenous Youth Leadership

Decent Work for Youth: Urban Indigenous Youth Leadership

Across the world, organizations and groups are advancing action to ensure young people have access to decent work. The Decent Work for Youth (DWFY) project aims to empower urban Indigenous youth across Canada to succeed in employment settings by strengthening their diverse leadership skills and networks.

Aligning with the Decent Jobs for Youth global catalyst for collaborative action on youth employment, the mission of the project is to develop a program for urban Indigenous youth to explore leadership training, cultural teachings, and professional development opportunities while navigating the world of work. The project will disseminate knowledge on specialized supports while helping urban Indigenous youth build confidence for navigating employment.

The project aims to create meaningful action for youth employment by:

  • Enabling urban Indigenous youth to acquire and enhance skills, including essential and transferable skills
  • Supporting research and innovative projects to identify better ways of helping youth prepare for, return to, and keep employment, as well as to be productive participants in the labour force
  • Providing mentoring and networking opportunities for Indigenous youth to promote career advancement
  • Supporting youth in making informed and wholistic career decisions
  • Building better linkages between organizations by linking employers, service providers, community leaders, unions, educational institutions, and other levels of government to address barriers to employment for urban Indigenous youth

The project features five key outcomes:

  1. Youth-led community-driven research projects with Feathers of Hope, Assembly of Seven Generations, and 4Rs Youth Movement, identifying common experiences and intersecting barriers faced by urban Indigenous youth in the labour market
  2. Environmental scan and literature review of promising practices in Indigenous youth leadership programs, national and global labour market outcomes and data, and Canadian policies affecting Indigenous youth employment
  3. An urban Indigenous youth leadership curriculum to build and strengthen transferable leadership skills, helping youth make informed decisions while navigating the labour market
  4. Leadership training for Indigenous youth across the country, providing mentorship opportunities, working with community facilitators to deliver cultural and land-based teachings
  5. A national forum, Advancing Success: An Employer’s Forum on Urban Indigenous Youth and the Labour Market, gathering employers, youth, government, practitioners and community leaders to leverage knowledge, collaboration, and resources for advancing meaningful action for urban Indigenous youth employment and leadership

To learn more about the upcoming events, visit the Events Page. For all other questions, please contact Samantha Santoro, Partnerships Coordinator, at ssantoro@nafc.ca.