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I NFORMATION BRIEFING
(FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE)

HEADLINE : RedWAY BC Project Looking for Partners for Social Enterprise

Innovative full-time work opportunities for at least 15 Urban Aboriginal Youth

DATE : July 5th, 2005

A Youth-driven social enterprise is looking to expand technology use in Urban Aboriginal Youth in BC while connecting youth to employment opportunities, support services, and training programs

Why is this Project important?

Many statistics that show the economic gap is widening between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians. BC's economy is booming - housing starts are still up, there's a shortage of skilled labour, the Olympics are coming, small business is still growing and investors are returning. Yet many Native reserves still suffer from lack of clean water and poor living standards. Challenges include little access to health care services, intergenerational effects from the Residential School system, lack of high speed Internet access (or no Internet access at all for over 110 communities!), and rising unemployment rates. These factors drive Aboriginal youth into the cities looking for more opportunities. And although the rate of Aboriginal Youth graduating from high school is increasing, it is still far below the general population. Contact us for our As YOUth See It Fact Sheet.

According to initiatives like Canada's Innovation Strategy, many Prime Ministers' and Ministers' speeches, and reports from every department of 4 levels of government (Municipal, Provincial, Federal and Aboriginal), a collective vision is needed for the inclusion of Aboriginal people in our evolving knowledge-based economy. We can work towards economic growth and prosperity by building on our social values of inclusion, equality and respect for all Nations. Canada 's competitive advantage is our diverse people with a wealth of skills, talents and creativity.

All Canadians must be given the opportunity to enhance their skills and abilities; e-learning opportunities and targeted capacity development will help our Youth succeed in pursuing higher education and meaningful careers NOW. It's time to help increase communication between knowledge holders, potential partners and the youth they'll serve, in all communities.

What is the RedWAY BC Project?

The RedWAY BC Project is an evolving website completely driven, designed, and maintained by Urban Aboriginal Youth in the Lower Mainland. Over 45 youth researched over 340 pages of content and helped us publish 30 e-zines since November, 2003 with the goal of supporting this mission: "Harnessing Technology to Inform, Honour and Connect Urban Aboriginal Youth to Services, Opportunities, the Community and Each Other."

RedWAY BC will create new (and enhance existing) partnerships to transfer knowledge, skills and technology in a culturally relevant and respectful way to the fastest growing demographic of Canada, Urban Aboriginal Youth. We expect that this Project will create a flexible model of best practices for other communities - both rural and urban - to assess, adapt, and adopt for their own needs. Our success comes from our commitment guaranteeing youth engagement at every stage of the Project's development. Together we're creating dynamic technology tools, templates and frameworks to share with others while building a social enterprise. We've begun offering high quality marketing communications services by creating websites, print materials and cross-promotions for events.

RedWAY BC Methodology

RedWAY BC created a diverse, dynamic Youth Advisory Council in January 2004. With their support, we have hosted over 30 youth group meetings and 12 Marketing Shadows focus group sessions. We've also created and administered 3 on-line surveys and 6 event polls to gather further input and feedback for the web design and structure. Over 45 Aboriginal youth from across the province have directly contributed to researching and writing content for our website or e-zine.

Turning Research into Action

RedWAY BC first considers how we can help youth at risk have a better chance of taking a step forward, not sliding backward, to survive transitions into "the big city." We try to keep on top of emergency resources, service providers, health and housing services and support agencies that can help them get their feet on stable ground. We highlight success stories, provide critical connections to other youth and promote cultural and youth-focused centres around the Lower Mainland.

Once a youth is safe in the city, we want them to harness technology to connect to job and training opportunities. Using our website, calendar and free bi-weekly ezine (RedWAY BC News ) , we promote job fairs, employment centres and agencies, educational advisors, cultural events and connections and organizations that provide personal and professional development. Our new RedWAY BC Pages database will provide current content and links. Hosting grass roots community gatherings are a big part of building connections, too.

Finally, we aim to support youth considering a business idea, finishing college or University, or making a career change . just plain MOVING UP the economic ladder. We can organize networking sessions, connect potential employers, provide on-line workshops, and partner to create Forums or Conferences that will highlight successes and share best practices.

Brief History

The website www.redwaybc.ca launched on March 31st, 2004 after 18 Youth Advisory Council (YAC) meetings and training sessions that gathered ideas and input directly from Urban Aboriginal Youth in BC. YAC members and writers are a diverse group representing various agencies (KAYA, UNYA , N8V AYS ), schools (NEC, SFU, UBC, IIG, high schools), cultures (First Nations, Métis, Inuit) and lifestyles. This website has interactive features like an events calendar, links, maps, forum rooms, multimedia sections and youth-written articles to help youth survive and thrive in the Lower Mainland.engaging youth in activities that will increase computer literacy.

Previous Project Funders

The Urban Aboriginal Strategy (UAS) provided start-up money of $100,000 in November of 2003 to our current host agency, the First Nations Employment Society. After we "exceeded their expectations", a 3-month extension for $50,000 was approved to gather more website content. The key stakeholder agencies of the UAS include:

• Human Resource Development Canada

• Western Economic Diversification

• Canadian Heritage

• Health Canada

Another $50,000 was provided by Western Economic Diversification to the end of March 31st, 2005 to research and expand the Business and Entrepreneurship sections. We're still accepting submissions for contacts and resources to be updated regularly to continue to build this section.

What's next for RedWAY BC ?

We've just completed our five-year plan, and are working hard to earn financial, informational and technical support from the AHRDA's, all levels of government, private businesses, technology and communications companies, youth groups and community members. Our new RED Leaders training program will provide critical capacity development in the areas of technology, business, leadership and community engagement. RED Leaders will manage one of the sections of the website, directly improving the economic conditions in their sphere of influence, on their terms, in their way, using our tools.

Our goals include working with the community to:

• Create a DTES-based office for RedWAY BC with 20 workstations and a training room (Summer '05)

• Implement our Human Resource & Capacity Development Plans including hiring our 5 core team members back full-time (summer ' 05), training 12 Urban Aboriginal Youth (Fall '05) and hiring at least 10 of them to be RED Leaders for each section of our website (Spring '06)

• Create a hands-on working environment for Aboriginal youth to learn skills necessary for all stages of creating, promoting and sustaining culturally-relevant, innovative communication tools (Fall '05)

• Expand to share training with each local nation so they see the value in hiring a youth to manage a sub-sections of the website (Fall '06-'07)

• develop e-learning opportunities on-line courses with youth agencies across the province (Fall '07-09) and with indigenous youth worldwide (Fall '09)

• Encourage corporate responsibility by attracting partners and sponsors for RedWAY BC (on-going)

• Engage in social entrepreneurship with free marketing services for other agencies/youth groups (Winter '05)

• Continue to provide high-quality, high-tech advertising, marketing and communication support services as a source of revenue generation by developing our social enterprise framework (on-going)

• Document our journey to use e-commerce to sell products, services, advertising opportunities and gather Project sponsorship support

• Create partnerships enable us to further develop and expand 8 main content categories of the website www.redwaybc.ca and the e-zine (Fall '05), plus respond to requests to additional categories like the Environment, Indigenous Youth, Women, Trades/ Industry, 2010, and Leadership sections (on-going)

• Enhance existing interactive applications of the website at www.redwaybc.ca so the Events Calendar, Talking Stick, Jukebox, E-zine, database, profiles, blogs and webpages are seamlessly integrated and dynamically linked, therefore creating a website that youth would visit daily, if not hourly (on-going)

For more information on RedWAY BC like our five-year strategy, our advertising and sponsorship rates or how you can support our strategy, visit the website: www.redwaybc.ca . We also encourage you to submit content and sign up for the free e-zine RedWAY BC News (look for the e link ).

Media contacts:

Kristin Kozuback, C.S.P.
RedWAY BC Project Manager
e-mail: kristin@redwaybc.ca
Phone: 604-783-8304

Sienna MacMillan
Youth Advisory Council Liaison
e-mail: sienna@redwaybc.ca
Phone: 604-779-7995