ITK launches Inuit youth leadership program
Summer internship helps Inuit develop professional skills, says Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami spokesperson
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami is launching a new Inuit youth leadership program that will give six participants the opportunity to work at the organization’s Ottawa office for the summer. (Image courtesy of ITK)
Six Inuit youth from across Canada will have a chance to gain professional work experience this summer through a new initiative from Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.
ITK, the national organization representing Inuit in Canada, has launched the Inuit Youth Leadership Program, a new paid summer internship opportunity in Ottawa.
The program was developed to give Inuit youth an opportunity to gain work experience in policy advancement, research, communications and corporate services, directly with an organization that does work at the national level, said Tracy Sarazin, the senior director of corporate services for ITK.
“It is part of our national strategy and action plans to provide mentorship opportunities,” Sarazin said, citing the work that ITK does to advance the rights and interests of Inuit in Canada.
“We work on many issues. They can be anything from suicide prevention, to missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, climate change … social development, so there are many different work opportunities [for participants],” she said. Chances to learn about policy investments, human resources and finance will also be available.
Sarazin said participants will be paired with a mentor who they’ll work with throughout the program. Participants will also work together during learning opportunities like field trips and visits to other organizations in Ottawa. At the end of the summer, they will have the chance to visit another region in Inuit Nunangat for a capstone project.
“There’s always challenges with the pandemic that we can’t predict, but we are really hoping that it will be a program where youth can have a personable relationship with an ITK employee [and] also have that peer support with the other six with other participants,” Sarazin said.
The four-month program is open to Inuit youth across Canada, with participants coming from outside of Ottawa given relocation and accommodation assistance. ITK plans to run the program this summer and again in 2023 and 2024.
The program is open to Inuit youth aged 18 to 30. Those who qualify can fill out an application form available on the ITK website.
YOUTH aged 18 – 30 years old!!!
To my understanding of what a Youth is (was) was from the ages of 12 – 18 years old.
Considering an adult person from 18 – 30 years old is just wrong.
Sending out the wrong message to the Youth (12 – 18).
And we wonder why the Inuit is caught between the Inuit and Qallunaq Worlds.
They cannot identify themselves as Adults.
Its probably because of their traumatic mentality.
And they go from adults to elders at 50
I m 55 yrs , i still consider myself , a young punk , the day , my kids check me into a old folks home , that when , become a elder
Pikkunaq, hope as many youth will join. Also if such similar could be set up in small communities. Too many of us Inui never completed high school and those that were before us either never went or had bad experiences at residential schools and the younger generation never really knew education. Only as adults, we realize, education would’ve been good for all the jobs available. It is never too late, our youth are our future, let us embrace all programs aimed at their betterment. Some commented young at 50, but our youth have children as teens so they never really knew being young, wild and free.