The Outland Youth Employment Program (OYEP) ran throughout the summer, teaching Indigenous youth from across B.C. skills, helping them achieve certifications and giving them hands-on experience in different spaces to help them succeed. The program was held in a camp overlooking Puntchesakut Lake, west of Quesnel.
Throughout the six-week program youth stayed at the camp, part of the goal being to simulate life at a camp working in the natural resource sector. Some of the certifications the youth have received will allow them to cut down logs, work as part of mop-up crews on wildfires, level one first aid and many more. Some youth also asked if they could get their FOODSAFE and Serving It Right certifications, which the program accommodated.
"We set up days to go tour the facilities (of resource extraction companies) so they can see what the day in the life of a worker looks like and what the safety protocols on site look like," said the program's camp supervisor Richard Roeser. He said the youth toured Gibraltar Mine, West Fraser Mills, an Enbridge site and many other places. One of the important parts of touring the sites is allowing youth to see all the different job opportunities in the natural resource sector rather than just picturing one possible job.
Each day the youth would have safety meetings ahead of their activity or training. They're also asked to complete chores around the camp.
"That's just to help them feel ownership over their space," Roeser said. "Every mess that they make ends up getting cleaned up by them." He said that can help the youth transition to living alone when they move away from home.
Roeser said the original goal of the program was to help natural resource companies improve relationships with Indigenous people and communities.
"For me, my goal here is to help remove any barriers that they may have as Indigenous youth to graduating and being qualified to get right into the workforce and get a good-paying job," Roeser said. "Some of them (are) in remote communities and the only jobs they have there are in natural resource industries." He said it allows youth to stay in their communities if they choose to and still get good jobs.
He enjoys seeing how much youth grow over the six weeks of the program. As he spoke two youth walked in and started choosing chores from a list without being asked to, he said seeing that kind of initiative emerge is great.
The youth also build relationships with each other despite being from different communities that are far apart. He likes to see youth come back each year and reconnect or tell him what someone in a previous year's program is up to.
"A lot of them, it's their first time away from home. So it's kind of a big stepping stone," he said. People in the past who have gone through the program have gone on to have successes and he said he firmly believes it does good for the youth who participate.
One of the youth who participated was Danny Branson, 17, from Vanderhoof. His sister found out about the program through working in the band office at Stoney Creek and suggested he participate.
"Getting more connected with people that I didn't know before here," he said was one of his favourite parts of the program. "I'm kind of in the middle of social and anti-social. So when I came here, I was a little bit nervous but as soon as I got comfortable, I met a lot of people that are pretty cool."
He also liked earning money while being there as the program pays the youth who participate.
Another youth is Kimberly Racher, 16, from Merritt. Her cousins and brother all went through the program and recommended it to her. She enjoyed trail building the most.
"I got to be with my friends all day long and I got paid for it," she said. She highly recommended the program to people because she feels she has built up skills and got to make money while doing it.
Violet Noskey from Williams Lake was another of the camp's youth. She's hoping to end up with a career related to English or early childhood education. Through the program she got her driver's license and applied to go to the College of New Caledonia.
"The first two weeks are hard because (we were) still getting to the schedule and it might be hard socializing with people because you've never met these people and you're going to be living with them for the next month," she said. "It definitely gets easier and it's really fun."
She said she made a lot of friends through the program and it was definitely worth participating in.
Brodie Joseph, 22, is from the Tl'azt'en Nation and is a leader-in-training through the program. He's been going annually since 2019 and took on more of a leadership role. He said going through it helped him decide that he wants a career in either forestry or carpentry.
Two of the program's crew leaders, Taddeo Moretti and Talia Ponesse are responsible for driving the youth to different facilities, helping to guide them through the program and answer any questions they might have.
Ponesse said the most rewarding aspect of the program has been seeing people grow and make friendships that she's sure will last for years.
Moretti said he has two keys to helping youth grow.
"Unconditional love and support while also offering push back," he said. He said with that approach he can help give the youth support and advice while also steering them in a positive direction. "The thing that drew me to is having more Indigenous representation in the natural resources world and just in the world in general." He said programs like OYEP are key to giving back and moving towards reconciliation.
The program is run by the tree planting company Outland. It partners with other natural resource industry companies to help give Indigenous youth the opportunity to build skills and get certifications necessary to get ahead in those industries. The OYEP website notes it works with Indigenous communities and elders to create a space for youth that is safe and supports Indigenous cultures.
