Research Start-up Summary and Abstract:

This youth project will engage urban Indigenous youth in Ontario including youth from the OFIFC regional structure (Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest) and has been coordinated by OFIFC Research team. The focus of this project is to document the stories and experiences of diverse urban Indigenous youth and identify wise practices that have facilitated in the cultivation of leadership skills. In addition, the youth examine what elements of youth leadership are necessary in the future and suggest ways these can be strengthened. The connections to traditional knowledge and the intersections of gender are important parts of this research. The youth determined that they would like to approach the leadership project through the use of multi-media tools to document their experiences in their communities. Four Friendship Centre communities are driving this project including: Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Dryden, and Windsor. The OFIFC’s youth board representatives from these communities were sponsored by the OFIFC as community leads for the project.  OFIFC youth representatives developed, organized, and led a youth leadership event in their local Friendship Centre community, with the ongoing support of the OFIFC. The OFIFC has collected and compiled this data, which is informing the development of a preliminary analysis for an OFIFC report and publication on leadership as well as a video on leadership that is being created in collaboration with an Indigenous filmmaker. A report on urban Indigenous leadership is expected in 2017 and examines the intersections between the OFIFC’s “Where are We?” and “Where Are We Going” projects.

Collaborating Friendship Centre and/or other urban Aboriginal organization:
Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres (OFIFC)

Main contact:
Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres (OFIFC)
Magda Smolewski
[email protected]

• Ontario’s Urban Aboriginal Identity Population (2011, NHS)

  67.1% of Ontario’ Aboriginal population lives in urban areas. 2.4% (301,430) of Ontario’s population identifies as Aboriginal, 3.5% (441,395) report having Aboriginal ancestry.
• 66.7% are First Nation, 28.5% are Metis, 1.1% are Inuit and 3.6% report having multiple or other Aboriginal identities.