Youth Action Fund Spotlight:

Feathers of Hope

Written in collaboration with Hilary Duff. Hilary is a journalist and communications consultant who works with teams worldwide to share stories of positive change. She's also the author of Planetary Health Case Studies: An Anthology of Solutions, a publication commissioned by Harvard University to illustrate the connections between human health and man-made environmental change. Hilary can be reached at www.hilaryduff.work.

 

This spotlight was written based on interviews conducted in August 2020. The Youth Action Fund supports grassroots initiatives working with youth who are underserved by the education system and overrepresented in the justice and child welfare systems. The Legacy Grant was gifted in 2019 to celebrate 70 years of the foundation’s philanthropic mission.

 

You don’t need to ask Samantha Crowe to imagine what happens when you actually listen to Indigenous youth—she can tell you first hand.

 

Samantha is the President and Chair of the Board of Directors with Feathers of Hope, a youth-led, adult-supported and championed organization based in Thunder Bay. She’s also a long-time youth activist, social work graduate, and community member of Lake Helen First Nation located along the northern shores of Lake Superior. Feathers of Hope was the recipient of Laidlaw Foundation’s 70th anniversary Legacy Grant, and is currently operating under a three-year grant from the Youth Action Fund.

 

Prior to becoming an independent non-profit in January 2019, Feathers of Hope was led by a group of five Youth Amplifiers and other staff as part of the Ontario Child Advocate’s office in Thunder Bay. Samantha was a Youth Amplifier between 2012-2017 and later worked with the office as a Community Development Advisor.

 

“As we read more documents and inquests, we noticed it’s a pattern where everything was the same or has gotten worse [for First Nations youth]. We were trying to figure out why that was,” explains Samantha of the Youth Amplifier’s original mission in 2012.

 

One of the documents reviewed was a 1995 report called Horizons of Hope. Led by James Morris, then the Deputy Grand Chief of Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN), Horizons of Hope convened young people across NAN territory to discuss the many issues faced by First Nations youth. The report characterized young people as “feathers of hope”—youth who would lead change for the next seven generations.

 

Creating a forum for conversation and play

Inspired by that concept and the approach of speaking directly with youth, Feathers of Hope created its forum events. “We wanted to go directly to young people and really hear what they had to say. […] They’re leading the discussion, not us,” says Samantha.

 

The first Feathers of Hope forum was hosted in 2013. It brought together First Nations youth with provincial, federal, and First Nations government officials to discuss topics like mental and physical health, the legacy of residential schools, opportunities for youth, and much more. Subsequent forums have focused on justice and juries, the child welfare system, culture, identity, and belonging, and health and well-being.

 

The basis of the five-day forum is simple but often overlooked: young people, especially Indigenous youth, too rarely have the chance to share their aspirations, challenges, and ideas with government decision makers. When they do, it’s usually to defend the rights and needs of their communities that haven’t been addressed. While youth welcome the opportunity to talk to leadership, the issues raised are not often acted on.

 

The forums are meant to change this. Giving young people the space and support to share their stories makes a difference. Samantha remembers the transformation she witnessed during the first forum event.

 

“A lot of young people came in with their hoodies on, earphones in, and really isolated within themselves. But as time went on, I could see them flourishing and engaging,” Samantha says. “A lot of the young people who seemed quiet and withdrawn had such big, powerful voices.” The stories and experiences of young people who attended that first forum were captured in Feathers of Hope: A First Nations Youth Action Plan.

 

“Youth as young as 14 weren’t thinking about themselves anymore, they were thinking about the future and how they didn’t want other people to have the same experiences they did,” says Samantha of the Youth Action Plan recommendations. “You don’t always get to hear about the fact that kids can think so selflessly about other people.”

 

Importantly, the forums also involved play and cultural activities. “Allowing young people to be young people because they don’t always get that opportunity,” Samantha explains. Activities included drum making, screen printing, medicine picking, hockey, lacrosse—anything where young people could express their creativity and unleash energy.

 

“I had never experienced engagement with youth in that way before. It was an amazing experience to see these young people come together and build that trust in a very short time,” recalls Betty Kennedy of past forums. Betty was the Manager of the Northern Office for the Ontario Child Advocate and is now a member of the Feathers of Hope board. Her involvement is just one testament to the importance of youth working side-by-side with adults and elders.

 

Through this combination of discussion and play, the forums created a sense of belonging for all who attended. “Folks who have participated in FOH, whether as a participant or staff, have felt the connection of family. […] It’s amazing to see the relationships that are built through these experiences,” says Samantha. Many of those friendships remain long after the forums have finished.

 

According to Samantha, hearing young people’s stories also left strong impressions on government officials. Policymakers and elected officials would tell her that the forums helped them think beyond numbers and see how a decision could impact a young person in their community. “To change someone’s thought pattern is huge, and that affects their daily work which can impact policies and bylaws. That can change a huge scope of young people’s lives,” she says.

 

Samantha points to how young people from Feathers of Hope and other organizations have since had the chance to review bylaws and the Child and Family Services Act before they’re passed as legislation. That direct input is just one step towards further ensuring Indigenous young people have proper representation on boards, the government, and decision making in general.

 

Laying the groundwork for the future of Feathers of Hope

Thunder Bay’s Child Advocate office was shuttered in May 2019 after the passage of Bill 57 by the provincial government. The closure came as a total shock to Betty, especially given the many challenges faced by First Nations youth in remote northern communities.

 

At the same time, Feathers of Hope had already started the process of becoming independent from the Advocate’s office. Since then, Samantha and the newly-created board have focused on becoming a new federally-incorporated non-profit organization. That means gaining ownership of their intellectual property, finding an office, creating policy and procedures, and more. Many of these activities have been supported by Laidlaw’s Legacy Grant and the Youth Action Fund.

 

Samantha and the team have many ideas for the future of the organization, including continuing to support Indigenous youth across Ontario and releasing the Child Welfare Toolkit and a series of culture, identity, and belonging graphic novels that were developed from past forums. Feathers of Hope will also develop and release a new product that will be produced with a youth advisory that focuses on the discussions based on the 2018 health and well-being forum. These materials could help with advocacy and also provide a resource to support Indigenous youth and the folks who care for them.

 

Though physical events are on hold for now due to COVID-19, the Feathers of Hope model of gathering youth together is a solution that’s proven to work, and is one that will continue in the future.

 

“We don’t sugarcoat what is happening and the real issues young people are facing, but we also want to highlight all the amazing things that they do and who they are,” concludes Samantha. “Young people have always been capable of having these answers and discussions, it’s just that people don’t always give them the opportunity to do so.”

 

 

Youth Action Fund Spotlight:

Pathfinder Project @ Turning Point Youth Services

This spotlight was written based on interviews conducted in August 2020. The Youth Action Fund supports grassroots initiatives working with youth who are underserved by the education system and overrepresented in the justice and child welfare systems

 

Alex Yeaman has met a lot of young people on their first day in court. Their reaction, he says, is usually a mixed bag: confusion, questioning who he is and why he’s talking to them, or just wanting to get out of there.

 

Alex is a Youth Mental Health Court Worker with Turning Point Youth Services, an accredited not-for-profit agency in Toronto specializing in youth mental health services. He also leads the organization’s Pathfinder project, which operates at the Ontario Court of Justice at 311 Jarvis St., one of the city’s three youth courts. Alex’s role and the project is funded by a three-year Youth Action Fund grant.

 

Pathfinder is a referral program that connects youth with various programs and services. Referrals are first made to court-based programs run by partner organizations such as Peacebuilders, Aboriginal Legal Services, Springboard Services, and Probation. Youth can also be referred to community services in order to access housing, part-time work, volunteer hours, counselling, reconnecting with school, and more.

 

Pathfinder helps young people navigate that system. The referral process starts with a voluntary conversation between Alex and a young person, whether it’s in the lobby of the court or while they’re in a holding cell awaiting their appearance.

 

“I’ll sit with a kid for 20 minutes, explaining things or answering their questions,” Alex says. “Once there’s a bit of comfort I’ll ask them if they’re interested in being set up with a youth worker at the court who can help with A, B, or C.” It’s a comprehensive approach seen through the lens of mental health.

 

First appearances in court can be scary and intimidating. That’s why the Pathfinder project values empathy and giving youth the space to talk. A lot of the questions asked as part of the mental health screening and referral process are deeply personal: if a young person has ever witnessed violence; how often they drink or do drugs.

 

Though Alex says young people are often very candid in their answers, it ultimately takes so many conversations to develop rapport and trust. Still, he says these short chats can help a young person become comfortable enough to be referred to different folks and resources.

 

In many cases, it helps that Alex doesn’t work as part of the court. “Some people have low trust in the justice system,” he says. “We probably get better buy in by telling youth that it’s voluntary and giving them the autonomy to make decisions for themselves.”

 

Connecting kids in court

Prior to Pathfinder’s launch in June 2019, the 311 Jarvis court lacked a broader and easily accessible clinical referral system. Not only that, but the sheer volume of young people passing through the youth court meant that those who could benefit from mental health or substance abuse services weren’t always being reached.

 

Creating a formal screening and referral program for youth first entering court was a recommendation of youth, frontline youth workers, parents, and justice professionals. Their thoughts on how to improve Toronto’s youth courts—including 42 ideas for action—were captured in a 2019 report released by Peacebuilders, with funding support from Laidlaw Foundation.

 

Alex and the other mental health court workers also observed certain inequities in who was accessing services. “We were serving a disproportionate number of white, probably more affluent youth, than what the proportion was in the rest of the court,” Alex explains. “ So we weren’t serving racialized youth at the rate in which they were being arrested and charged in court.”

 

“Through the community youth court worker program we were really seeing how youth were referred and accessing services differently for all sorts of reasons,” adds Lynn Bushell, Turning Point’s Manager of Clinical and Program Evaluation Services. “Their experiences and access to services at every layer were different, and we wanted to see if we could make a shift there.”

 

Pathfinder had been operating for nine months before COVID-19 shut down the courts. Alex and Lynn say they were seeing a greater proportion of young people matched with mental health and other services, but it will be hard to know for sure until a greater sense of normalcy is restored.

 

The courts and COVID-19

As with everything else, Pathfinder looks differently in the time of a pandemic. Young people are no longer mulling about in the lobby of the youth court, and first appearances have been happening remotely.

 

Alex and other court workers now need to go through police stations to connect with youth. “[The officers] have been pretty helpful at getting a kid on the phone so we can make our pitch,” says Alex. “But it’s even more awkward for them now because it’s someone they haven’t met and now can’t even see.”

 

Flexibility and a willingness to go digital are key—both for the Pathfinder project and for the courts at-large. The Pathfinder team is developing a mobile app so their questionnaires and screening system can be used anywhere there is internet. The idea is that court workers could use a tablet to fill out questionnaires so they’d have more time to reach a larger number of youth.

 

The legal system is behind technology-wise, though that will likely change due to COVID-related limitations and the fact that by 2022 Toronto’s three youth courts will be consolidated into a single building. Part of the Youth Action Fund will go towards networking with the other courts and making sure the project continues in the new location.

 

“To have a three-year period of funding is incredibly helpful to allow us to think about how [Pathfinder] could become a permanent thing in Toronto, but also lots of other courts in other jurisdictions,” Alex says. Pathfinder’s approach is being evaluated by partners at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).

 

While there is the potential and need for Pathfinder elsewhere, that expansion is something that Alex and Lynn almost don’t even want—they’d prefer youth be referred to mental health and other services while they’re in school, at the community centre, or visiting the doctor. Each presents an opportunity to identify youth who may be struggling, long before they end up in court in the first place.

 

Until that’s the case, Alex and the Pathfinder team will be there physically and virtually, helping guide the way.