Engaged youth ambassadors fill needs in their communities

The Nunavut Youth Ambassador program is becoming increasingly popular with a number of youth in the Kivalliq region.

Local youth mentor Glen Brocklebank, of Chesterfield Inlet, said the program sees ambassadors selected every year to represent the territory at major games.

He said the youth have to do Recreation North programming to learn how to be leaders in their community, so the program, in fact, is trying to develop community leaders.

“From there they go to a youth summit, which has been in Iqaluit during the past couple of years,” said Brocklebank. “While they're at the youth summit, they're learning more about how to engage in community recreation programming. They have to find a need, and then develop and run a program that will fill that need in their communities.

“So, that's trying to give them the training to be able to do those things while they're in Iqaluit before going back to their community to do them. Everyone who completes the program can earn courses toward a recreation certificate.

“They take three of the 12 courses that Recreation North offers and then, sort of, a selected group get to go with Team Nunavut to the major games. Last year, it was the Arctic Winter Games in Alaska. This year, it will be the Canada Summer Games in Saint John's, Newfoundland. Then they will volunteer while they're at sporting events.

“We previously sent 12 kids in the Youth Ambassador program to the summit, but, this year, we're not sure yet how many they're going to be able to take to go to Saint John's.”

Brocklebank said he really likes the program, which he sees as promoting growth and development.

He said he's been a community mentor for a couple of years and sent his first local youth to the summit about eight years ago and the participant really enjoyed it.

“And then, a couple of years ago, I had one kid complete the program and go to the Canada Summer Games. I sent a really shy young person, who went down south to the summit on their own, with no escort, and then went to Niagara Falls to the last Canada Summer Games and came back a confident young person – confident in their self and confident in their speaking skills.

“I saw tremendous growth. They've been working really well in the community, now working for housing, and wanting to pursue post-secondary education.

“This year we had six kids from Chester sign up, but one had to bow out because they went to Greenland for the Arctic Winter Games and they're currently in Arctic College, so they had to withdraw because they knew they were going to miss too much school for the summit.

“So we had five kids from Chester in the program and they're all doing really, really well. I'm a fan of any program that really promotes growth and personal development and this program seems to do both of those, as well.”