Charity helps youth reach goals

Aboriginal youth will soon have more help to reach career goals thanks to the upcoming launch of a new charity aimed at building capacity.
“Indigenous people are our nation’s largest under-leveraged asset,” said Kelly J. Lendsay, president and CEO of the Aboriginal Human Resource Council. “A career offers the best way for Indigenous people to achieve their potential, renewed hope and self-sufficiency. We have initiated the formation of the Kocihta Charity to build capacity within the First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities in order to increase economic strength within the Indigenous community, within corporations and within Canada.”
The Kocitha Charity is scheduled for launch on Oct. 23 at a fundraising dinner featuring stand-up comics, fine cuisine stations, a silent action and a dance at Toronto’s Daniels Spectrum Centre, where Peawanuck Elder Louis Bird recently shared stories and delivered workshops during the Toronto Storytelling Festival.
The Aboriginal Human Resource Council announced the Kocitha Charity a day after the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives issued a report that 50 per cent of First Nations children live below the poverty line compared to 17 per cent of all Canadian children.
“The average child poverty rate for all Indigenous children in Canada is 40 per cent, compared to 15 per cent for non-Indigenous children,” said David Macdonald, a senior economist with the CCPA and co-author of the study. “Regionally, the situation is even worse in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, where two out of three status First Nations children live in poverty.”
The study indicated $7.5 billion would be required per year from either market income or government transfers to bring all children up to the poverty line, including $1 billion for all Indigenous children and $580 million specifically for status First Nations children.