Hundreds of Indigenous youth need a mentor

Hundreds of Indigenous youth in the province need a mentor and an Alberta organization is looking to the education community for help.

The Alberta Mentoring Partnership (AMP) is an umbrella organization that connects would-be mentors with organizations that provide mentoring programs throughout the province. Within these member organizations, at least 600 Indigenous youth are currently awaiting a mentor, said Tanya Tourangeau, AMP’s Indigenous engagement lead.

“The programs offered by our partners can help young people achieve success in school, develop job-ready skills and increase self-confidence,” Tourangeau said.

Indigenous youth can benefit from mentors who are Indigenous and non-Indigenous, Tourangeau says, so they gain insight and support from a variety of perspectives. This type of support not only helps the youth succeed in life but benefits society as a whole.

“If Indigenous youth were equal in graduating high school, entering post-secondary, gaining employment, it could raise our economy tremendously for all Albertans. Why not work together to better the tomorrow for everyone?” Tourangeau said.

While mentoring a young person used to involve spending one-on-one time with them in person, lessons learned during Covid have opened up the experience to a variety of approaches that include interacting in person, virtually or even through social media platforms.

“We encourage the mentor and the mentee to really define how they want to set up their mentoring relationship based on their individual needs,” Tourangeau said.

Through its website, AMP enables mentors to search for mentoring opportunities that interest them. From there, each agency has their own volunteer sign-up process that mentors can follow to be matched up with an Indigenous mentee.

AMP partners include dozens of organizations throughout the province, including Boys and Girls clubs, Big Brothers Big Sisters associations and many schools.

“One of our goals is that every school across Alberta becomes a partner and has some form of either informal or formal mentoring program that can provide a great resource to the youth in their community,” Tourangeau said.

AMP has launched a new program targeted at youth in foster care. The program will provide funding, support and resources to agencies that want to develop programs specifically to help youth transition from in care to out of care. The program has been conceived through an Indigenous lens, since 70 per cent of youth in care are Indigenous.

“The need for Indigenous mentors is only going to grow,” Tourangeau said. “Indigenous youth need support in all areas of strength.” ❚