A federally funded, national youth program, aimed at providing young Canadians with a skill-base building and personal development experience, is coming to Hope.

Katimavik youths coming to Hope

Katimavik, meaning "meeting place" in Inuktitut, groups nine 17-21 year olds, collected from every geographical region in Canada, and places them in various communities, doing community and volunteer work, while building skills at the same time.

“We're very excited about coming to Hope,” said Pamela Lang, assistant regional director for the BC/Yukon area. “This cultural exchange should be very positive.”

The group will be offering volunteer services to organizations partnering with the program: Boston Bar Elementary Secondary School, Camp Squeah, Coquihalla Elementary, the Hope-Fraser Lodge, Hope Family Place and Hope Community Services have all been selected by Katimavik.

During their stay in Hope, the youths will also spend free time developing abilities in leadership, both official languages, healthy living (which includes cooking meals from scratch for more than10 people), cultural discovery and environmental issues. An older project leader will be assigned to the group and will live with them for the nine months, wherever the group resides.

Katimavik hopes that the community can assist by looking for suitable housing for the group. Ideally, a three to five bedroom house would be rented by the organization, for them to live in from September until June. However, any solution(s) to accommodate 12 people together will be considered, which could also be an unused district building, or commercial space that could be adapted to suit them.

Lang believes that Hope can expected to gain a lot from this partnership, not only from the economic impact for the community but also by the thousands of volunteer hours the participants provide to partnering organizations.

For more information about Katimavik or to offer assistance, please contact, Pamela Lang at 604-521-0555 ext.23 or by email at plangkatimavik-bcyk.org

See also Turner, Linda. (2003). An Intensive Group Living Program for Canadian Youth: Inside the Katimavik Experience. Relational Child and Youth Care Practice. Vol.16 No.1 pp 60-65

http://www.mytelus.com/news/article.do?pageID=community/hope&articleID=1384426

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