Indigenous Mentoring
Considerations for Mentoring Indigenous Children and Youth Guide
Children and youth across all communities in the province need support from adults as they grow. Indigenous communities have unique mentorship needs. The 10-step guidelines help schools and mentoring organizations create culturally relevant programming for children and youth.
Components of Effective Indigenous Mentoring Programs
This tool compliments the Considerations for Mentoring Indigenous Children and Youth Guide by providing succinct information. Please refer to the full version of the guide for more details, traditional teachings from the Elders, and knowledge shared from community members.
Engaging Indigenous Community/Organizations in Supporting and Indigenous Mentoring Program
This tool compliments the Considerations for Mentoring Indigenous Children and Youth Guide by providing succinct information. Please refer to the full version of the guide for more details, traditional teachings from the Elders, and knowledge shared from community members.
Engaging Indigenous Mentors
This tool compliments the Considerations for Mentoring Indigenous Children and Youth Guide by providing succinct information. Please refer to the full version of the guide for more details, traditional teachings from the Elders, and knowledge shared from community members.
Pow Wow 101
A Pow Wow is a sacred social gathering held by many North American Indigenous communities. It is an event to dance, sing, socialize and honour traditions and culture of Indigenous peoples.
A Pow Wow can be one day or last all weekend, from a Friday to Sunday night, with breaks for supper and sleep. Everyone is invited to attend a Pow Wow! If you see one promoted, consider yourself included. Make your first Pow Wow a success by observing these general protocols and information:
Round Dance 101
A Round Dance is a traditional social gathering of Indigenous communities from across North America, where participants form a circle and move in a clockwise direction, following the beat of a drum, and the singing of traditional songs.
The Round Dance is a symbolic event to honour our ancestors, acknowledge the natural world, and express gratitude for all that has been given. It is a time of joy, respect, and reverence for Indigenous traditions and ways of life.
Nine Principles of Indigenous Mentoring
Indigenous-framed Mentoring in an Era of Reconciliation Indigenous framed mentoring has substantial epistemological differences from western models; primarily in its goal to bring Indigenous youth, their families, and communities together in a healing framework that emphasizes a return to culture, identity, ceremonies, and language. This framework can also include systems navigation to achieve success in education and employment, physical fitness, and wellness and can include one-one mentoring, school mentoring, community-based group mentoring or a hybrid model. A systematic review of Indigenous youth mentoring programs by Sanchez (2023) identified five factors that tended to universally present in any version of successful Indigenous mentorship programs.
“We acknowledge that we are on and support Mentoring for Youth in the traditional territories across Alberta of the many First Nations from Treaty 6,7,& 8, the Métis of the 8 Alberta Settlements, and Inuit people whose footsteps have marked these lands for centuries.”