Our communities have always had incredible faith in our young people. Time and time again, they've done wonders with our love and patience. With this in mind, we're now seeing a surge of initiatives aimed at giving our emerging leaders the chance that they deserve.
Youth Fusion’s annual Leadership Conference is all about promoting cultural pride, team building and inclusion. The gathering brings together James Bay Cree and Inuit youth who have all been involved in their respective Student Councils.
Celebrating their consistent effort to stay engaged in school, the Leadership Conference invites the youth to show off their skills and make new friendships with other young leaders across Nunavik and Eeyou Istchee.
82 students from eight Cree communities (Waswanipi, Mistissini, Nemaska, Waskaganish, Eastmain, Chisasibi, Wemindji and Whapmagoostui), as well as Inuit students from Puvirnituq and Inukjuak converged to Waswanipi for this year's Conference. True ambassadors, these young leaders left with the confidence and enthusiasm necessary to promote empathy and solidarity in their own community and beyond.
Youth Fusion offers more than 15,000 activities, seven days a week during the school year to 3,000 at-risk youth between the ages of seven and 18 in eight Inuit communities in Nunavik, nine First Nations communities (Cree, Innu and Mohawk) and at the Aboriginal student service centre at John Abbott College.
- Also check out...
- Youth Fusion's official website
“We want to build bridges between the students, the classroom and the community, so that the youth are empowered to be agents of change,” says André-Yanne Parent, Youth Fusion's Senior Director of Operations and Philanthropy in Inuit and First Nations communities.
The 44 students and university graduates employed by the organization live in the communities year-round and implement almost 40 projects in leadership & healthy living, performing arts, cinema, and science with the support of young local animators in training.
Jimiane Gunner and Destiny Cooper-Grant
Youth Fusion is a non-profit organization based out of Montreal, QC. It is committed to lowering school dropout rates by engaging students in experiential learning, as well as fun extra-curricular activites. Youth Fusion is present in schools across Quebec, and is particularly active in James Bay Cree and Inuit communities.