Greetings Interested Youth and Future Leaders, MMAYC welcomes your interest in our group and in the upcoming Building Integrity Today, Preventing Crisis Tomorrow Conference. As per our agreement with the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs Secretariat(APC) There Are Currently two ways in which youth could register to take part in the conference.

1. The chiefs have signed a commitment to bring 2 youth from there community at their own expense. That means that the Chief and Council must select 1 youth with the possibility of a maximum of 4 youth based on their ability to fund those youth. The Chief and Council will be responsible for Travel costs as well as a 75.00 dollar registration for conference that will cover accommodations and food.

2. For those of you who for some reason cannot get funding or do not want to go through your chief and council. MMAYC has travel reimbursements applications online. One only need to fill out the forms and send a brief 1 page description about yourself. MMAYC will be accepting applications until April 12th and will be giving a maximum of 20 successful applicants notice by April 17th.

CONFERENCE THEMES
While dialog is important for encouraging youth to express their ideas, there must be a focus on certain themes that will help encourage good outcomes. The conference theme then sets such a focus, along with the sub-themes that will serve the structure and objectives of the current Mi’kmaq Maliseet Atlantic Youth Council. The following are the four major themes of the conference that will be the focus of the workshops.

A. Relationships Stress and Crisis Management
While many people are quick to point to alcohol and drugs as the cause of suicide or incarceration of youth, they fail to look at what is the underlying causes for the stress that creates the need for alcohol and drugs. Youth believe that Relationships and crisis related to those can be often pointed to as the root cause for this stress. Relationships with family, friends, or partners can be draining to many youth, and there are very few people who are trained to talk with youth about these things in a productive positive way. We hope to focus this workshop on dealing with those crises and bring awareness to these problems as well sharing experiences and proposed alternatives.

B. Peer Counseling, Youth helping Youth
A youth’s peer group is a very important to their social advancement and growth. Some things that this workshop can do is to identify appropriate approaches for communicating with other youth who may dealing with issues such as loss of friends, loved ones, depression, suicidal thoughts, drug addictions, and help identify people and programs that may be there to help. While it may be a short time frame to certify youth as peer councilors at this conference, we can begin the process of teaching youth how to help each other through communication and successful methods of prevention.

C. Creating Positive Experience Community by Community Approach
This theme will be focused on what communities have been doing in the Atlantic in terms of providing youth empowerment and youth programs. We will consider their successes and approaches. Not only by doing this will youth see how other communities have been successful, but as Atlantic First Nations youth we can make key recommendations that our leadership will be able to address.

D. Rebuilding Cultural Integrity
This theme will be about looking back and toward our historical roles as youth in the various First nations cultures in the Atlantic. We will be hearing from our traditional leaders about the colonial experience in Canada and Atlantic that has created dis empowerment, assimilation and cultural genocide, and what we can learn from not just going back to our traditional ways but becoming active change agents for the future.  

OBJECTIVES
To gather Atlantic First Nations youth from both Mi’kmaq and Maliseet Nations in a conference to talk about the issues that affect our communities and our youth.
To strengthen the structure of the Mi’kmaq Maliseet Atlantic Youth Council and to have an increased membership and awareness of the council.
To network and dialog on what problems and solutions are available for First Nations youth in the Atlantic.
To give youth the tools to proper communication and crisis techniques that they will be able to share with other youth.
To promote cultural integrity and healthy living within the youth in the Atlantic.  

If you are still interested in signing up and are between the ages of 18-25,
please fill out this form and click submit.
MMAYC will be accepting applications until April 12th and
will be giving a maximum of 20 successful applicants notice by April 17th.

Download Travel Request Form Here

Registration Form: