Seniors Making Connections Through Digital Literacy

This 8 week program was delivered in Carcross, YT to seniors by seniors with a focus on developing digital literacy skills. With a train- the- trainer approach, it's goal was to teach participants how to navigate the internet, learn about scam and fraud prevention, and how to connect with friends and family virtually.

In the summer of 2020, the Yukon Literacy Coalition launched a youth entrepreneurship initiative supporting and offering opportunities and guidance to 22 Yukon youth (12-18 years old) who wanted to work for themselves. The Yukon Literacy Coalition helped with start-up costs, marketing, budgeting, operational plans and provided ongoing support and guidance.

Making Work, Work for You

I yéi jinéiyi, i jeyées yéi jinganéi (Making Work, Work for You) program was a 12- week hands-on learning program that started in Carcross in July 2020. It was designed to help participants plan, develop and operate a small business. The program was also designed to foster an entrepreneurial spirit and encourage and support personal wellness through physical, mental, spiritual and emotional health.

With a high concentration on hands-on learning, the participants of the program had experienced running multiple pop-up businesses at the Whitehorse Outdoor Fireweed Community Market in Shipyards Park. This was a great opportunity to practice the skills needed to run a small business from start to finish. The participants experimented with a traditional bannock recipe and created new flavours weekly to sell at the market. They sold the fresh bannock with hand-pickedfireweed flower jelly, and sweetened earl grey tea with fireweed simple syrup.

The Yukon Literacy Coalition, Champagne Aishihik First Nations (CAFN), and Yukon College worked together on a 40-month project called Dän Tsʼänānän, which was a federally funded program designed to increase capacities and employment for CAFN citizens. The vision of the program was to deliver innovative and culturally appropriate programming that focused on peoples' strengths and brought about positive change for at-risk citizens. The intention was to increase literacy and employment skills of CAFN youth and adults that were out of school, under-employed, or unemployed.

One of our program initiatives was a Greenhouse Workplace Training program. The 21-week program started in April of 2019 in the Village of Haines Junction, Yukon. It was designed to combine wellness, non-formal learning (soft skills) and formal learning (hard skills), with the operation of two commercial greenhouses.

The Yukon Literacy Coalition partnered with the NWT Literacy Council and Ilitaqsiniq - the Nunavut Literacy Council on a collaborative agreement with the Northern Alliance on Literacy & Essential Skills (NALES) to complete a three-year project called “Strengthening Literacy and Essential Skills Development and Labour Market Outcomes across Northern Canada for Adults with Low Skills Levels."

The goal of this project was to strengthen literacy and essential skills development and to improve market outcomes across the north. The team reached out to Aboriginal youth and adults, both men and women, who were out-of-school or unemployed with low levels of literacy and essential skills in the remote north. Throughout this project, Aboriginal youth and adults had the opportunity to develop more transferable skills, become more employable, increase their access to the labour market, and experience more success within the northern economy.

With the support of the Office of Literacy and Essential Skills (OLES), the Yukon Literacy Coalition (YLC) undertook a project that would assess Yukon community stakeholder interests related to workplace and workforce literacy and essential skills (LES). Through consultations, the YLC heard about models and principles that could move the expanding field of workforce and workplace (LES) forward in the territory. A literature review was also carried out, as well as a scan of past and present workforce and workplace LES initiatives in Yukon.

The Yukon Literacy Coalition, NWT Literacy Council, and Ilitaqsiniq-the Nunavut Literacy Council jointly organized the Made in the North: Policy & Practices Exchange on Skills Development forum, which was held in Yellowknife, NWT, from October 23 to 25, 2012. Adult educators, employers, policy makers, language experts, literacy practitioners, aboriginal and community leaders, and others working in the area of literacy and essential skills development in the three territories and Labrador attended the forum.

The purpose of the gathering was to support made-in-the-north approaches to adult learning, including literacy and essential skills; the sharing of ideas and resources; and the creation of a northern action network. The event was funded by the Government of Canada’s Office of Literacy and Essential Skills; Government of the Northwest Territories’ Department of Education, Culture and Employment; Government of Nunavut’s Department of Education; and Yukon Territorial Government’s Labour Market Programs and Services, Advanced Education.

This community-based research project was a collaboration between the literacy councils of NWT, Nunavut, Labrador and Yukon.

We intended to open dialogue about northern indigenous men’s experiences with learning and work. We wanted to better understand the barriers that northern First Nations, Inuit and Métis men face and, most important, what will help them succeed.

We hope the research will lead to more effective programming and policies to support northern Indigenous men in learning, work and well-being.