Northern Youth Abroad

Northern Youth Abroad is a program serving youth living in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, offering high school credits, travel and work experience in southern Canada and abroad.

Northern Youth Abroad provides an opportunity for youth enrolled in the program to develop valuable leadership capacity, plan for the future, and be better positioned to finish high school and go onto post secondary or university. Best of all, they bring these skills and experiences back to their communities as role models and future leaders.

Transcript: Northern Youth Abroad

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Transcript: Northern Youth Abroad

Narrator voice-over:

It’s been an exciting summer for the participants of Northern Youth Abroad … a cross cultural work and learning experience program in southern Canada and abroad.

The youth , between 15 and 23 years old, spent 5 weeks in volunteer job placements and are eager to share their experiences before heading back to their homes throughout Canada’s North…. from Grise Fiord Nunavut, the northernmost community in Canada, to Kakisa Lake a community of 50 people in the Northwest Territories.

Rebecca Bisson – Northern Youth Abroad – Program Director

Northern Youth Abroad is an organization that was started in 1998 and so we serve youth living in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories; offering high school credits, travel and work experience…

So the objectives of the program are to gain leadership capacity, to inspire our participants to do some future planning, whether they want to go onto post secondary school, definitely finish high school, look at different jobs and careers that they’re interested in and then also to become volunteers… so that they’re bringing these skills back to their home communities and so they’re inspiring change and really taking an active role as young leaders in their home communities.

…In our Canadian program work placements the participants are doing something, hopefully in a field that maybe one day they are interested in working in.

Christine Lund – Program Manager – Tungasuvvingat Inuit

Tungasuvvingat Inuit is an organization, a non-profit organization for Inuit in the Ottawa and surrounding area.

A lot of our programs require the assistance of volunteers to be as successful as we are …so the additional of Delta and Heather has really been a bonus for us.

Heather Pope and Delta McKay – NYA Participants

Heather: …I learned a lot.

Delta – from like, preparing food to cleaning…

Heather: to learning Inuktitut…and just like…being around people, it’s just so much fun.

Narrator voiceover:

While at their job placements Northern Youth Aboard participants are billeted with host families across Canada, and are included in all family activities. It’s another way for the students to learn about life in Southern Canada.

Rebecca Bisson – Northern Youth Abroad- Program Director

Our international program is based on the Canadian program, but has a larger global citizenship component. So we’re looking at having our participants become citizens of the world and so they are volunteering in a group setting …this year in orphan care centres with youth empowerment programs.

Levi Eegeesiak – NYA International Group Leader (Botswana)

My favorite part being in Botswana was watching the kids that we were with grow, and I think it’s very positive for them to work in a hands-on experience away from home in a third world country.

Karen Aglukark – NYA Board Member Alumni & Facilitator

Before the participants go on their 5 week placements we have a week of orientation…

Here at reorientation they’ve come out so much more than when I first saw them at Orientation…they’re not as shy …they’re more willing to share their ideas, they have stronger opinions …

I think they take back to their communities a lot…they bring back a more confident person, that sets an example and they also bring back energy to get things done and to go and try new things.