“Everything we do on this land is connected. If we grow and learn together, our communities will thrive together.”
Narlie Dapilos
Research from the DEVlab project highlights the significant disruptions that youth experienced in education and employment pathways during the COVID19 pandemic. These disruptions were more pronounced for Black, Indigenous, and racialized youth, many of whom faced reduced access to skill development opportunities and greater challenges in developing hard skills. Post-pandemic, many youth continue to struggle to articulate their strengths, which limits their ability to secure meaningful work.
DEVlab was a research and engagement project led by Youthful Cities in partnership with the Tamarack Institute to better understand the skills that youth need to succeed in today’s workforce. Findings from the project included youth reporting 15 percent greater disruptions to their education during COVID19, with Black, Indigenous, and racialized youth reporting higher gaps in skill development. These challenges point to systemic issues within education, the workforce, and decision-making systems, rather than shortcomings of individual youth.
In response to these systemic barriers to education, skill development, and meaningful work for youth in the North, youth changemakers Narlie Dapilos, Bayanihan Collective Solutions (Yellowknife, Northwest Territories), and Erin Cartan, Territorial Youth Collective/BYTE (Yukon Territory), shared insights grounded in lived experience and community-led practice in remote and Indigenous communities. Together, they identified five interconnected recommendations that highlight the system-level shifts needed to support youth in Canada’s North to thrive. These recommendations emphasize relationships, accessibility, shared power, and alignment between youth strengths and institutional systems.
Five interconnected and actionable recommendations to help youth thrive in Canada’s North:
Centre relationships and localize action
Bridge youth strengths and job market skills
Build relationships between youth and employers
Create platforms for youth influence in decision-making
Centre youth leadership and build accessible systems
Effective engagement in the North requires approaches grounded in trust, transparency, and respect for community priorities. Dapilos and Cartan emphasized that research and outreach efforts must be shaped with Indigenous leaders, organizations, and youth to reflect local values and needs.
Dapilos spoke to the importance of understanding one’s positionality when entering Northern communities and being clear about intent. He cautioned against extractive engagement, noting that “things can look good on paper, but then if nothing is delivered, then you are just adding harm to the relationship you are trying to build with communities.”
In Yellowknife, this understanding led to a shift in identity and practice. Working with community partners, the collaborative changed its name to Hazhǫ Ełexè Łets’eèzhe, meaning “We all learn and grow together” or “We are all connected.” The name reflects a broader shift in mental models toward interconnectedness, shared responsibility, and long-term relationship building.
Cartan similarly emphasized the importance of understanding the history of engagement with First Nations communities. She highlighted patience and relationship building as essential conditions for meaningful change, recommending that time be spent getting to know young people and their communities before trying to advance solutions.
Employment systems often fail to recognize the strengths that youth already possess, particularly in remote and Indigenous contexts. In Yellowknife, this gap is addressed through a toolkit that reframes employability in ways that align with youth experiences and cultural contexts.
Staff engage youth through activities they enjoy, such as nature walks or dog sledding, while supporting reflection on what those experiences reveal about their strengths. These reflections are linked to attributes such as being an advocate, self-reflector, or dreamer, each represented through animal symbolism. For example, the raven reflects creative thinking, while the fox reflects learning.
Youth are then supported to translate these attributes and strengths into technical skills that are advantageous within the job market, and how to articulate them in resumes, cover letters, and interviews. These skills can include adaptability, communication, collaboration, creativity, innovation, digital literacy, problem solving, reading and writing. This approach shifts practice away from deficit-based models and toward systems that recognize diverse forms of knowledge and capability.
Cartan described an ongoing disconnect between youth and employers in the Yukon. While employers often report that youth are not applying for jobs, youth have shared that they are applying but not being hired. Many youth feel that employers do not understand their realities or offer flexibility around school or family responsibilities. At the same time, some youth lack support in developing application materials.
Yukon’s collective addresses these challenges by focusing on relationship building rather than placing responsibility solely on youth. One approach involves offering half-day workshops delivered by young people to employers, which support them to better understand youth experiences and consider how hiring practices can be more accessible. Centring youth voices in this process shifts power dynamics and supports more inclusive employment systems.
In the Yukon, systems change is also pursued by creating opportunities for youth to engage directly with political leaders. The collective convenes youth and partners from across the territory to advance the Territorial Youth Strategy, ensuring that youth perspectives are integrated into policy conversations about education and employment.
At youth summits, the collective shares updates on how partners are implementing the strategy, including which government departments are responding to calls to action around particular areas like education and youth employment. Participants reflect on progress, identify gaps such as communities that have not yet been reached, and surface priorities to bring back to government and other partners for further action.
Cartan shared an example from an education circle where the Yukon Minister of Education listened to teenagers describe their experiences in school, responded constructively, and committed to bringing their ideas back for departmental work. These spaces shift power by legitimizing youth knowledge and embedding it in decision-making processes that directly affect their lives and experiences.
Cartan emphasized the importance of internal reflection within organizations, noting that identifying barriers and areas for improvement can be challenging but necessary. Openness to feedback from young people strengthens trust and improves outcomes.
Yukon’s collective centres youth leadership by ensuring tools, programs, and workshops are youth-led wherever possible. Documents such as strategies and job descriptions are written clearly and accessibly for youth aged 12 to 20. The collective also creates remote and local job opportunities, embeds flexible interview processes, convenes youth committees with honoraria, and hosts gatherings that support connection and future opportunities. These practices reflect shifts in organizational culture, resource allocation, and decision-making authority toward shared leadership with young people.
Across all recommendations, Dapilos and Cartan emphasized the importance of recognizing the distinct contexts, histories, and realities of remote and Indigenous communities. Supporting Northern and Indigenous youth requires more than generic approaches. It requires systems that prioritize relationships, value diverse strengths, and create meaningful opportunities for youth leadership and influence.
They highlighted the need to bridge gaps not only between skills and jobs, but also between youth, employers, and decision-makers. Most importantly, they underscored the importance of asking Northern youth what they need, listening carefully, and acting on what is heard.
View the Guide to Meaningfully Engaging Youth in Your Community
View the Guide for Navigating the Future of Work for Youth and Employers
Check out the DEVlab Report - Building Bridges: Connecting Youth Skills to the Future of Work
View the Building Economic Resilience: Skills Development in Indigenous and Northern Communities