Video: RISE-ALIVE brings aboriginal youth programs to five community centres around Vancouver

A group of Vancouver First Nations people has launched an initiative that’s pushing for more aboriginal participation at community centres.

In a new video created by Salish Sea Productions, representatives for Aboriginal Life In Vancouver Enhancement (ALIVE) introduce the program, Responsible Indigenous Strategic Empowerment (RISE).

The group’s executive director, Scott Clark, notes there is an obvious need for aboriginal-led activities for young people.

“Fifty percent of the urban aboriginal population are under the age of 25,” he says. “There is an untapped resource that we need to be plugging into, be it through the arts, through sports, through recreation.”

The RISE-ALIVE program is running at five community centres. Those are Mount Pleasant, Strathcona, Britannia, Hastings, and Ray-Cam.

In a telephone interview, Clark explained a partnership with the Vancouver park board has placed aboriginal youth leaders at those community centres to see them organize special events, run sports and recreation programs, and lead a range of other activities such as voter drives ahead of the October federal election.

In the video, Clark also asks some good questions.

“Why are there no aboriginal people on boards of directors of existing community centres?” he says. “Why are aboriginal people not being volunteers or being members? Why are there no programs and services around reconciliation so that we can educate the broader community around aboriginal issues and break down all these myths?”