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| Urban Native Youth Association |
| http://www.unya.bc.ca |
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| Address: | 1640 East Hastings St
Vancouver - V5L 1S6
BC/Vancouver |
| Contact: | Gillian Mee |
| Email: |  |
Company description:
UNYA offered its first program to Native youth in 1988 with the Native Youth Job Corps, unfortunately this program is no longer in existence. We became a non-profit society with the addition of the Aries Project in 1989. We have since grown to include thirteen programs including four residential programs, and over seventy-five full and part-time staff.
We believe that Native youth have the right to live safe, healthy, and positive lives that are free from negative influences. We try to address issues that negatively affect the lives of Native youth through a good continuum of care with a large focus on prevention-based activities such as our homework clubs, peer leadership, and sports and recreational activities.
Our main goal is not only to assist Native youth to leave their street lifestyles, but to deter our children from ever entering street life. We do this by offering preventative programs to meet youth’s immediate and long-term needs. We will continue to adapt to the ever-changing needs of Native youth to ensure that they have the best chance possible to lead safe, healthy, and positive lives.
Youth are consulted in the development of new programs and services, as we feel that youth are the experts in their own lives and are in the best position to advise us on youth issues. We always strive to have at least 4 of our 9 board members be Native youth, youth are influential in programming through their direct input as participants, through user group consultation for the new Native Youth Centre, and through research.
Over the past few years we have focused much of our efforts on community development initiatives, as we believe that the strengthening of our community as a whole can have a tremendous positive impact on the lives of Native youth. We have tried to contribute to the positive development of our community by creating our Full Circle and Helping Hands manuals, hosting community meetings and forums, offering training on youth issues to the community, serving on community steering committees, attending consultation meetings, conducting research, developing innovative programs, hiring and training youth, chairing the Youth Portfolio of the Vancouver Aboriginal Council, and creating partnerships that expand services for Native youth.
The Urban Native Youth Association Executive Director and Senior Staff work hard to ensure that our staff are supported both in their work and as individuals. We promote healthy lifestyles that includes providing an Employee Assistance Program that enables staff to debrief with or regularly visit a qualified Counsellor. UNYA is well known for our monthly FUNYA Day which is a team building and wellness day. In the morning we have a workshop that helps us to do our work more effectively or to work on our personal wellness, then we have lunch together, and finally in the afternoon we do a fun activity such as a sports activity, games, or a movie. FUNYA is also a great opportunity for our many staff to provide updates about their programs and to get to know each other as our programs are spread throughout the community.
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