Innovative learning partnership for Indigenous youth

In 2024, YukonU’s Indigenous Advisory Circle and Board of Governers approved the University’s first Reconciliation Framework — a foundational document, which will help guide planning and development at YukonU, including work toward the achievement of commitment #2 in Yukon University’s Strategic Plan - To take our place in advancing reconciliation.

YukonU is working towards nurturing a culture of deep listening, dialogue, and respectful engagement, and decolonizing through meaningfully improving programs, services, research, spaces, and approaches to post-secondary education. The Framework was informed by Yukon First Nation communities’ desires and needs and is based on an authentic foundation of understanding, honoring, and creating space for Yukon First Nations’ cultures, languages, heritages, knowledge systems, and worldviews.

Through their decades of experience in the administration of the Yukon Indian Peoples Training Trust, the Training Policy Committee (TPC), one of the Boards and Committees of the Umbrella Final Agreement, will assess the current financial landscape and the availability of funds for education and training of Indigenous youth in the Yukon.

This project is offering Indigenous applicants needing to complete some pre-requisites for entrance into degree programs offered at YukonU a bridging opportunity that includes strategic advising, connection to tutoring services as required, support navigating the technology in online courses (as required), and team-building activities, ultimately supporting more Indigenous youth to enter into degree programs and ultimate careers in fields such as teaching and social work.

Insights gathered through this pilot may help inform how bridging pathways may be formalized at YukonU.

For more information, contact Andrew Richardson, Dean, Applied Arts, YukonU

A one-year pilot for an Educational Pathways Connector position at YukonU to identify and address barriers for Indigenous students in post-secondary, foster greater connections between YukonU and Yukon First Nations learners, and grow the Yukon First Nations student enrollment.

For more information, please contact Haley Mitander, Education Pathways Connector, YukonU

Illuminating Worldviews is a co-learning journey intended to raise awareness and understanding of the often invisible philosophies and systems that we live within. Through a carefully guided exploration of philosophies and systems that are often considered "normal" or "objective", members of YukonU’s senior leadership will participate in a co-learning journey aimed at creating conditions for all worldviews, philosophies, and systems of governance to be effectively shared and respected.

For more information, please contact Jodi Gustafson, Program Director, Illuminating Worldviews

This project will pilot an Indigenous student mentorship program to nourish the learning spirit. Cultural programming will be intentionally designed to nurture the hearts, minds and spirits of Indigenous learners at YukonU. Teachings will align with Indigenous pedagogical practices to encourage cultural safety and growth, attend to the lessons from the seasonal rounds, and enable reciprocal learning among all participants (mentors/learners).

The pilot will be offered in partnership with the Elders on Campus Program, initially at the Ayamdigut campus with the potential for community campus trial(s). This project is also testing an approach that does not require participants apply/register, which can be a barrier for supporting Indigenous learners more broadly. The Program will be designed to support participants in learning appropriate cultural protocols for engaging in relational work.

For more information, contact Lindsay Moore, Director of First Nations Initiatives, YukonU

In 2022, the Yukon First Nations Education Directorate (YFNED) partnered with Yukon University on an initiative to map the many facets of Yukon First Nation (YFN) education in the territory. Over several months a series of conversations were hosted with the intent of taking a more comprehensive look at the education system in the Yukon, including gaps, areas of overlap, and opportunities for collaboration. As a collective, it was agreed that we should continue the systems approach for collaboratively tackling education issues faced by Indigenous youth in the system.

The creation of an Education Ecosystem Project Coordinator, housed at YFNED, comes as a direct response to this call for action. The Education Ecosystem Project Coordinator will engage with the identified education entities within the ecosystem, with YFNED’s staff teams and programming, and YFN communities and youth directly, to identify and understand common obstacles faced by Indigenous youth. Then, rather than continuing to use workarounds and band-aid solutions, the coordinator will work with these entities within the ecosystem to develop collaborative projects/initiatives that address and dismantle these obstacles to support Indigenous youths’ educational success.

Project Lead: Mark Smith, Education Ecosystem Project Coordinator, Yukon First Nations Education Directorate

This project will work through the process of dividing a 6 credit, 112 contact-hour University Access Pathways course into a series of smaller credit courses, allowing students who may not be able to complete the entire 6 credits in one go, to get credit for the work they complete. Having multiple smaller courses also allows more flexible delivery options (e.g., compressed delivery, community delivery, on-the-land offerings).

In addition to restructuring the curriculum, this project will engage with First Nations around learning-related issues like funding and enrolment, and the Office of the Registrar to navigate and trouble shoot YukonU’s processes for providing non-traditional course offerings. In doing so, this project will set the stage for more alternative delivery models in the future, thereby increasing access to education.

Project Lead: Steve Biggin-Pound, Chair, School of Academic and Skill Development, YukonU

The Reconnection Vision (RV) is a social transformation guide and toolkit that focuses on educational approaches to support us all to become whole and live in good relationship with ourselves, each other, and the Land.

The RV builds off the momentum and teachings from the Yukon First Nation (YFN) Climate Action Fellowship. The Fellowship was a 3-year leadership, policy development, and cultural Reconnection program delivered by a tri-partnership between the Assembly of Yukon First Nations - Yukon Region (AFN-Y), the Council of Yukon First Nations (CYFN) and Yukon University. Fellows were charged by YFN leadership to develop the YFN approach to climate action.

To support the 13 Fellows, who were 23-30 years old and from all walks of YFNs experience, we developed a whole-person educational approach, where we created a cultural-based curriculum that developed their spirituality, emotional competency, along with their minds. Upon completion of the program, Fellows say, “I have the confidence to make life changing decisions for myself and so I can lead others.” The Fellowship alumni are now engaging in their philosophy of “Reconnection is Climate Action,” where climate change is a symptom of our disconnect from spirit, self, each other, and Earth. The approach is to normalize whole-person processes, to seed Reconnection and in turn shift towards a new normal for living, learning, and working. The RV and Action Plan was endorsed by YFN Leadership in March 2023.

To see a copy of the Reconnection Vision Plan visit: https://reconnection.vision

The RV project has transitioned to an implementation phase where former Fellows are developing a youth-led governance model that upholds the Reconnection philosophy. They aspire to live true to the vision and values of Reconnection today. They strive to be well, to develop a series of resources for governments and classrooms and to continue to share the teachings of their journey through multi-media.

For more information, contact the Project Lead: Jocelyn Joe-Strack

Learners at the Whitehorse Correctional Centre (WCC) are disproportionately of Indigenous ancestry. This project will explore piloting initiatives to identify and remove systemic barriers for learners at WCC and create long-term supports for future programming.

Specifically, this project will look at ways to foster increased collaborations across YukonU to coordinate learning opportunities for WCC learners (e.g., student-led practicums or work integrated learning opportunities). It will also explore opportunities for hosting a mobile trades program and supporting WCC learners in their transitions to study at other YukonU campuses (e.g., developing relationships between WCC learners and Indigenous Student Navigators, Elders on Campus, and/or a renewed Aunties/Uncles program).

Project Lead: Kevin Kennedy, Instructor/Coordinator Whitehorse Correctional Centre, YukonU

To Swim and Speak with Salmon is a new, Indigenous-led program that engages Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth in paid training through place-based programming and engaging with experts and policymakers, while traveling through the salmon's range.

This project is supporting the development of a conservation advocacy program that is suited to the Yukon and done in a very relational and Indigenous process way. This place-based, whole-person education program emphasizes the spiritual, mental, physical, and emotional education of participants.

The project will capture the learnings that youth achieve and will explore how to replicate them in other regions or with another cohort. Information that may help guide how Indigenous Knowledge may be recognized, learnt, and credentialled.

For more information contact Jared Gonet, Senior Instructor, YukonU

A collaboration between Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in Government and YukonU’s Dawson City campus, this project will develop and pilot a bridging program which will address gaps and barriers to Indigenous youth accessing and succeeding in post-secondary and beyond. It will have the added benefit of growing the student body, and in turn foster a sense of community, at the Dawson Regional Campus (Hub).

For more information, contact Ashley Doiron, Manager, Programs and Courses, Dawson City Campus, YukonU

YukonU will coordinate and develop local Indigenous youths’ capacity to deliver STEAM (Science Technology Arts Engineering and Math) and Trades programming in Yukon communities. This project will build skills and confidence of young adults in STEAM and leadership and grow capacity within communities to deliver youth programming and increase community control over youth programming. Additionally, it aims to inspire younger kids to, one day, become future STEAM and trades leaders in their communities and to create meaningful youth employment opportunities.

Project Leads:

Dan Hoefele, Youth STEAM Programs Coordinator (Southern Campuses), Yukon University

Liz Vickers-Drennan, Youth STEM Programs Coordinator (Northern Campuses), Yukon University