Moose Cree investing in youth

A rash of youth suicides has rocked Moose Cree First Nation over the past few months, but a new, stable source of funding for the community’s youth center has given hope that the trend can be reversed.
Moose Cree has been dealing with four youth suicides since the beginning of May. The deaths have shook up a community that has become far too used to seeing young people take their own lives.
“It’s heartbreaking when you lose a youth to suicide, but you develop a thick skin after all this happens,” said Jay Montour, Moose Cree’s John R. Delaney Youth Center manager. “It just happens so many times that you’re too tired to respond emotionally to it.”
Other community leaders struggling to cope with the death of young people echoed Montour’s comments.
Charlie Cheecho, deputy chief of Moose Cree, said youth in the community are getting the wrong messages about suicide.
“There’s a hockey tournament named after a kid who committed suicide,” Cheechoo said. “I don’t know, but to me it seems like you’re promoting it.”
Cheechoo founded and runs Project George, a program bringing youth out on the land to teach them traditional skills.
He and other leaders in the community are hoping a renewed focused on youth programming will help the First Nation combat youth suicide.
Moose Cree First Nation has committed $500,000 a year for five years to youth programming.
The money has been earmarked for programs operating out of the community’s youth centre, which opened three years ago.
Montour said the funding commitment comes as a relief for the youth center, where staff have been struggling to meet the demand for youth programs.
“This gives us the green light to hire new staff and really focus on programming,” Montour said. “Things are progressing. It’s slow, but it’s a forward motion.”
Montour said the youth center will focus on media arts, gym sports and land-based activities as the new programming rolls out.
Peter Wesley, Moose Cree’s executive director, said one of the challenges facing First Nations is that finding money to build facilities is easier than finding money for ongoing
programming.
Wesley pointed to the Moose Factory youth centre as an example. The youth center is a beautiful building, with ample office space, recreation facilities, a music jam-space and a radio station. But limited staff and programming money has made it difficult to use the space available.
Wesley said First Nations often talk about the need to work on youth issues.
“We needed to put our money where our mouth is,” he said. “We’ve put up a building, now we need to offer programs for youth.”
Wesley said youth programming was identified as a priority during a community engagement process the First Nation recently undertook.
Chief and council then agreed to fast-track the money for this year, so that the youth center can get summer programming in place.
Montour said chief and council’s efforts came at a good time.
“There is lots to be excited about here now,” he said.