Swan River Youth Centre
Swan River Friendship Centre

Project Summary

To continue to implement Youth Programs and activities though the Swan River Youth Centre. These Programs are designed to promote Cultural Awareness, Sort and Recreation Activities, and Social Programs to Aboriginal Youth in our Community.

Main Component of Project

One of the main components will be addressing is in the social area, by providing an accessible, cultural relevant Drop-in Centre for the Aboriginal youth of our community. Developing and providing many social activities such as Day Camps, Movie Nights, Field Trips, Gym Night and any other activity where youth can interact with each other.

Project Activities

Our Youth are involved in various different programs & activities in the community.

Sports & Recreation:
1) Minor Hockey- We have sponsored a total of 18 Youth in Minor Hockey. Ages 4 to 18 years of age.

2) Soccer- 21 registered with more expressing interest.

3) Gymnastics/Dance Class- Youth Gymnastics is held every week. 4 youth ages 7-18 attend. School of Dance is held every week with 12 students registered.

4) Gym Night- Gym Night is held 1 night per week at the local school gymnasium, various sports such as volleyball, basketball, and floor hockey are played, as many as 25-30 youth participate each night, age requirement for gym night is grade 6-12. Members of the junior A Hockey Club volunteer and participate at this event.

5) Day Camp- is available during the summer months. Five summer students were hired to run this program, youth are divided into 2 age groups, group 1 is for youth ages 6-11 and group2 is for ages 12-17, the 6-11 age group program is funded by the Friendship Centre and the older age program is totally funded by UMAYC. Youth enjoy outings to various lakes in our area, and they also participate in other various activities such as, mini golfing, soccer, softball, and fishing trips. Arts & Crafts were also part of the daily program. We had a total of 82 youth registered in group1 and 24 youth registered in-group 2.

6) Minor Ball- 13 youth were sponsored in minor ball.

7) Manitoba Indigenous Winter Games- 17 youth from our community attended this past years games that were held in Peguis, Mb, our youth participated in Hockey, Basketball, Volleyball and table tennis. Our plan is to get more of our youth to participate at these games so our youth can qualify to represent Manitoba at the next Indigenous Games. Recreation Tournaments-Pool, Table Tennis and Foosball are also held on a monthly basis. Various prizes are given to our winners.

8) Boys/girls Night out- Once per month the boys or girls have their own night, activities for the girls include, makeovers, baking, sewing, hair night, quading and some activities that the boys have done include various fishing trips, golfing, music night, and attending hockey games.

9) Movie theatre night- we take 6 youth to local theatre every Tuesday night

Cultural Activities

1) Square dancing/jigging- is held every Thursday, practices are held once a week at the Friendship Centre.

2) Powwow Drum Group- this program has been put on hold due to the instructor moving away from our community, we are in the process of looking for a new instructor and once we find one, classes will once again resume on a weekly basis.

3) Youth Trapping Club- the club consists of 21 youth ranging ages 13-18, every weekends during the trapping season, 2-4 youth are taken up to a registered trap line, here the youth are taught how to set snares and traps for various animals for their furs. They also learn how to skin and stretch such furs, once in the bush they learn basic wilderness survival skills and safety. This program is for both boys and girls for ages up to 18. This program is funded by the Manitoba Metis Federation.

4) Youth fiddling- We have a total of 12 youth registered in this program, the youth are learning fast as some of them have performed to the public already at Community functions.

5) Arts & Crafts- is held weekly at the youth centre, the youth take lesions in the craft of Moccasin making and beadwork from our local elders.

Education & Training

We have sponsored a variety of Personal Development courses and will continue to do so as the need arises such as, a) Babysitting Safety Course, b) Drivers Education, c) CPR, First Aid. D) Resume Writing, e) Hunters Safety Course.

We also have an after school homework program, the programs runs from 5pm-6pm every weekend, tutorial services are provided for those who need it.

We also have alternative School Program called S.U.C.C.E.E.D. at our Youth Centre. SUCCEED is a 20 week Education/Training program, the goal of the program is to reintegrate youth back into the regular school system or into an employment opportunity. Youth work on upgrading their Math, English, along with that they participate in Life Skills, art, Physical Education and computer training.

Also new is the Life Skills (career Connections) program for “at-risk or high Risk” youth ages 18-29, the main goal of this program is to get these youth either back into school to get their high school graduation or teach them enough skills to find employment.

Social and Health Program

1) Alcohol and Addictions Awareness
2) Stay in School
3) Role Model Presenters
4) First Aid/CPR
5) Cross Cultural Awareness
6) Ceramics

Social Activities

The Youth Centre will offer a wide variety of social activities, from pool tournaments, table tennis tournaments, board game night, movie night, skating, and swimming. Teen dances are a favorite among youth to various outing of the community.
We also hold annual Events such as Thanksgiving Feast, Halloween and Christmas Party.

Youth Leadership

A youth council has been established and there are 8 youth, 4 males and 4 females, aged 15-18 old that sit on the youth council. The youth council meet once a month to discuss and plan and future programming for the youth centre. The Youth Council is responsible for a monthly calendar that they fill out at each meeting. The youth were elected by a democratic process and will remain on council for 1 year or less if problems or unusual circumstances cause participation on the committee to decline. The youth council will collect new ideas and opinions from other youth and present them to the committee, the committee will attempt to reach consensus on ideas that are worthy of further study or development of an initiative. Leadership training skills and workshops will be provided to our youth council and to other youth who show interest, this will be done on as an “as needed basis” as most of the youth receive these skills training workshops in the regular school system.

Community Involvement

We have our youth involved in community events in the past and will continue to do so.
Examples of this are:
-A float in our annual parade’s (Northwest Round-up a & Christmas Parade)
-Community Clean ups (held every spring and fall)
-Planting trees and flowers (at the local park)
-Hosting teen dances (also in partnership with the local schools)
-Volunteering at local school functions
-Performing and displaying our Cultural Activities at community events.

Peer Counseling/Support

Currently, 3 of our youth counsel have their peer counseling and two students are currently taking this course.

Anticipated Results and Outcomes

The focus of this program is to empower our youth through the provisions of programs, services, and community activities. It will also enhance the capacity of our aboriginal youth to lead and manage the initiative. By encouraging youth to stay in school by giving the youth the support and assistance they need to improve their personal values. By creating positive programs and activities in out community, the youth will hopefully strengthen their ties with others in the community.