Rotary Youth Leadership Program
Grant supports 10 aboriginal students
The Rotary Youth Leadership Program offers leadership training to young adults in the post-secondary age range (18-24 years of age). The program is well established and successfully has provided participants with skills and inspiration to become leaders in the community. Many of the RYLA alumni have started and/or joined Rotaract clubs in District 7080.
As some will remember, the Right Honourable Paul Martin spoke at the 2013 District Conference about our potential role in assisting Aboriginal educational outcomes and quality of life by helping to promote a better understanding of the culture, experience, rights and history of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples through our clubs.
Supporting 10 aboriginal students
Then Angela Nardozi, Project Manager, Deepening Knowledge Project at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education was the keynote speaker at the 2013 Rotary Meeting at RYLA. She told of her experience working in a Native community and befriending young adults to encourage them to pursue post-secondary education, fully cognizant that this would mean leaving their close-knit communities to attend universities and colleges in the south.
She reported dismal results as the students encountered racism in many forms, and were painfully lonely. Most dropped out in the first few months. She recommended that these students need mentors/friends from the student bodies to help these aboriginal students in their cultural adjustment.
Members will recall Chief Beardy coming to our club to speak. He talked about the need for educational curricula to be modified to tell the true story of Canada’s history. At RYLA we have had Native presentations which did just that. Professor Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux, was a workshop leader who founded Canada Roots Exchange. She is the Nexen Chair in Indigenous Leadership at The Banff Centre, has taught Native studies, political science, history, and business at Georgian College, Seneca and Laurentian University, and Aboriginal studies and social work at the University of Toronto. Wesley-Esquimaux believes that embedding Indigenous knowledge and Aboriginal history into curriculum at every level is the only way to ensure that Canadians develop an appreciation for the significant contributions of Aboriginal peoples in this country. In 2014 the RYLA program included representatives of the Native peoples in Orangeville, Ontario Gil Sipmena and his wife who shared the story of the Medicine Wheel with the RYLArians. Most were unaware of the complexity of this ancient and complex philosophy.
The Rotary District 7080 has recently set up a District Aboriginal Resource Team (DART) chaired by Rotarian Ingrid Sproxon. It is proposed to the Rotary Club of Brampton that 10 Aboriginal Participants be funded to attend the 2015 RYLA program, with $10,000 in our approved budget for Aboriginal Assistance.
The program would then have 40 participants, with 25% aboriginal. The program will be delivered to all 40 and a formal evaluation conducted. This can test whether an intensive training program can build trust, develop leadership skills, and engage Native youth in Rotaract and other community activities, and thus build their confidence. Carole Berry and Vanora Spreen have excellent contacts with Native organizations in order to recruit potential participants.
Motion: That the Rotary Club of Brampton allocates $13,000 to the District RYLA program to engage 10 aboriginal students in the program. $7000 will be for registration fees, $3000 to supplement the training component (expenses for speakers, evaluation, etc.) and $3,000 for sponsoring 4 local students as in past (Note - this is included in our current 2014-5 approved Budget.)
Moved Vanora 2nd Peter – CARRIED