Project and Background
Skátne Ionkwaweientehtaonhátie is a youth-led engagement project. We use research as a way of engaging with community, supporting other youth to engage with their community, learning about what supports youth in their journeys, as well as learning about ourselves along the way.
We understand research to be a process of learning and sharing and our goal is to place this back into the hands of our community. We believe that research can and should be led by community. Research is often seen as a western endeavour. We have created a training on research to enable community to expand capacity to do research. We hope that this will engage youth, teach them about research, allow them to understand the power in their voices through listening and engaging with their peers. We define youth as being under 35 years.
Different from many research projects this is not a discipline specific project. It is research about process while simultaneously giving youth a voice and the space to express what can help support them and what they envision for Kahnawake. One objective is to collectively find ways to learn together and rethink what research means to us as youth. As we do so, we learn from youth about their interests, we engage more and more youth, and we start community projects to respond to the interests of youth. We have connected with almost 100 youth over the past couple of years, through individual and groups discussions as well as surveys, and one major theme that youth expressed is that they want to learn language and culture in a youth-friendly environment and approach. With this information we obtained new funding and created an action project of a grassroots youth group that organizes gatherings and provides spaces for youth to learn language and culture. We then learn with youth about how these programs can be adapted to better support youth on their learning journeys and journeys towards wellness.
Language and culture contribute to the overall wellness of an individual. Empowering and supporting youth through these types of programs will support youth in achieving and maintaining wholistic wellness, including the prevention of type 2 diabetes.
We understand research to be a process of learning and sharing and our goal is to place this back into the hands of our community. We believe that research can and should be led by community. Research is often seen as a western endeavour. We have created a training on research to enable community to expand capacity to do research. We hope that this will engage youth, teach them about research, allow them to understand the power in their voices through listening and engaging with their peers. We define youth as being under 35 years.
Different from many research projects this is not a discipline specific project. It is research about process while simultaneously giving youth a voice and the space to express what can help support them and what they envision for Kahnawake. One objective is to collectively find ways to learn together and rethink what research means to us as youth. As we do so, we learn from youth about their interests, we engage more and more youth, and we start community projects to respond to the interests of youth. We have connected with almost 100 youth over the past couple of years, through individual and groups discussions as well as surveys, and one major theme that youth expressed is that they want to learn language and culture in a youth-friendly environment and approach. With this information we obtained new funding and created an action project of a grassroots youth group that organizes gatherings and provides spaces for youth to learn language and culture. We then learn with youth about how these programs can be adapted to better support youth on their learning journeys and journeys towards wellness.
Language and culture contribute to the overall wellness of an individual. Empowering and supporting youth through these types of programs will support youth in achieving and maintaining wholistic wellness, including the prevention of type 2 diabetes.