1.2 Program Overview

1.2 Program Overview

In late 2021, CRE and Deloitte connected to explore the opportunity of collaborating on CREs first Indigenous Youth Advocacy Week. With full support from Deloitte, the Advocacy Week moved forward and launched in April 2022. The Advocacy Week sought to provide Indigenous youth with opportunities to connect with government leaders and policymakers to share their ideas, visions, and priorities for federal policies on a range of key issues, to be identified by the youth selected to participate. Further, the program aimed to place emphasis that these opportunities must continue to exist moving forward.

During recruitment, Indigenous youth were asked to identify what they would discuss with a senator or parliamentarian if they had the opportunity to sit down with one. In reviewing the applications, we identified the four most common issues raised, which we broadly grouped into these categories: • Mental Health and Wellness, including: o The suicide crisis and the need for accessible, effective, culturally appropriate, and culturally safe prevention programs; o Improving access to supports and services in northern, remote, rural areas; o Incorporating principles of disability justice into mental health services and policy; o Addressing the impacts of systemic racism on youth mental health; o Destigmatizing mental health; o Developing mental health supports that address intergenerational trauma & healing; o Improving access to culturally appropriate and culturally safe addictions services as integral to mental health and wellness. • Water, Land, and Energy, including: o Land Back / stewardship / protection; o Connection between pollution, climate change, and physical / mental health; o Waste disposal; o Funding for water infrastructure; and o Food sovereignty • Access to Culturally Safe, Quality Education, including: o education quality for Indigenous people across provinces and on-reserve o better education for Canadians about Indigenous history; o improving Indigenous high school success rates; o removing racism from the education system and Indigenizing it; o including mental health supports in educational institutions; o supports for students with disabilities; o developing youth leadership skills; and o improving PSSP and making university more affordable. • Indigenous Sovereignty and Cultural Revitalization, including: o Land Back; o Restoring stolen resources;