The Yukon Youth Directorate held their annual Youth Leadership Camp from Wednesday to Friday last week and BYTE was invited to join the action. The three eventful days were filled with information, artistic expression, games, excitement, and activities designed specifically to push the youth beyond their usual comfort zones.
DAY 1:
The first day started with a series of Icebreakers that were lead by, yours truly, the BYTE team. After this, Anne Aram from Health Promotions lead an eye opening game called “Knowledge Xchangeâ€. The group was split in to three and they were asked to discuss a series of topics based on the issues raised in a recent Queens University study titled “Health and Health Related Behaviours Among Young People in Yukonâ€. These included problems with bullying, as well as drug and alcohol use amongst young people in the rural communities. It gave our young leaders an opportunity to openly discuss some issues that mattered in their communities and to consider them in a way that they hadn’t necessarily done before.
Afterwards, the mood was lightened when the Youth Directorate’s resident art expert, Linnea Blum, helped the group to express themselves artistically. Each person was given a blank CD to use as a canvas, along with some coloured paints. To make things more challenging they were only allowed to use cotton buds and toothpicks as brushes. Despite these limitations, we were incredibly impressed by the work that they produced.
CD's decorated by the workshop participants
Lastly, the group was split in to teams and asked to invent a new game using items such as balls, rope, foam floaties, frisbees, blind folds, and clothes pins. The youth got very creative and the highlight was a game called “elephant soccerâ€, which involved attaching a “noodle†to your head and using it to push a ball around in order to try and score goals!
BYTE facilitator, Suzie, competes in a challenging game of "elephant soccer"
DAY 2:
On the second day, Anne asked the groups to split up and asked the grand ol’ question: “What would you do in your community if you had a million dollars?†Most groups said they would build a new youth centre in their community, but many also thought that improving public transportation would make a big difference. For many youth in the communities, just getting from their home to town can be a huge challenge that many people from the bigger cities don’t even consider!
Students engage in some serious discussions.
Afterwards, George and Elias from The Yukon Aboriginal Sport Circle taught the group how to play traditional Dene Games, such as the stick pull. Then the group was shuttled out to the Grey Mountain Archery Range, where everyone learnt how to use a bow and arrow. Many of the youth had never tried this before, but everyone grew in confidence throughout the afternoon.
Practicing archery.
Day 3:
It was the last day was definitely the most fun and also the most challenging for many of the youth! After breakfast, the group went to Equinox Rocks to climb the rock wall and fly down the zip-line. This provided the group with an opportunity to be responsible for each other’s safety and when someone was struggling, the support they gave each other was very inspiring! After lunch at Shipyards Park, the group headed to Mount Sima, where everyone participated in the suspended Monkido Aerial Adventure obstacles. This was definitely an opportunity for the youth to push their boundaries – with many achieving things on the obstacle course that they had never expected to.
Thanks to everyone involved!
BYTE (and the Yukon Youth Directorate!) would like to thank the youth leaders and adult mentors from the communities around Yukon who participated in the annual youth leadership camp. It was great to see your enthusiasm and we are confident that the games and information that you learned will help you to be to be the best leaders possible in your communities!