Youth Empowerment Project aims to inspire, give hope

By Maggie Plummer

The Salish Kootenai College Youth Empowerment Project has been busy this month with three weeks of camp at Blue Bay.

The project aims to provide inspiration and hope to 30 Native American youngsters by connecting them to healthy role models and activities that don't involve drugs and alcohol.

Nestled in the Mission Valley just south of Pablo, the 30-acre Montana Waterfowl Foundation includes this aviary, where the empowerment project kids fed some ducks. (Maggie Plummer photo)

Among the camp's activities have been a "Happy Hippo" boat ride, swimming, fishing, cultural classes, creative writing classes, photography sessions, a theater workshop, poetry reading, a rock climbing and ropes course, and trips to Wildhorse Island, West Glacier, the Montana Waterfowl Foundation, Schwartz Lake, and the Big Sky Waterslide Park in Columbia Falls.

Whew.

According to project director Billie Swaney, the project started last fall in partnership with three local schools: Two Eagle River School, Ronan Middle School, and Polson Middle School.

The program, officially called "Choices and Options Program," is designed for at-risk youth, as a drug and alcohol prevention program. It's funded with a $246,000 grant from the Department of Health and Human Services, and the funding is expected to come through for the next two years as well.

All of the seventh graders in the program are Native American. "We could have picked any age group from fourth to 10th grade," Swaney explained. "We decided to go with seventh grade because the kids are vulnerable at that age."

The project is designed to develop a "cohort" of students and follow them through a three-year period. There are four components: academic enrichment, cultural enrichment, health and wellness, and professional development.

The summer program is the culmination of the year for the project, Swaney says. "It's incentive-based," he adds. "They can earn some money for participation. Also, they have to stay out of trouble and stay in school."

Manager John Jarvis showed the campers weeds to avoid as they toured the foundation grounds, which range from dense forest to marshy bottomlands. (Maggie Plummer photo)

On Tuesday, June 19, the camp group took a tour along the winding paths of the Montana Waterfowl Foundation (MWF), a local nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation and propagation of native waterfowl and their habitat.

The Char-Koosta News tagged along as John Jarvis, president and MWF manager, led the tour around the place, which includes nine ponds of varying sizes.

He showed the kids how to be respectful of the birds, demonstrated how to call the resident Sandhill Crane, and pointed out some Trumpeter Swans with their cygnets.

The idea of the foundation is to secure protected rest and nesting areas for native waterfowl, as a way to help restore declining numbers of native ducks, geese and swans in western Montana.

Education is a primary mission for the MWF. Tuesday's tour began in its "school house" and took in its impressive aviaries.

Since the foundation began in 1984, the place has seen an average 500 student visitors each year.

The project youngsters visited a pond used for raising west slope cutthroat trout, where Jarvis helped them feed the fish. They also fed the ducks in the foundation's aviaries - which have pools and running water.

The foundation a variety of waterfowl, including ruddy ducks, pintail, cinnamon teal, ringneck ducks, Captive snow geese, trumpeter swans, hooded mergansers, wild mallards, wood ducks, bufflehead, goldeneyes and other waterfowl that pass through the Mission Valley.

The place also has plenty of hungry mosquitoes, which were out in full force the afternoon of the tour.

After the three weeks of camp are over, SKC's empowerment project will offer more summer activities and in the fall will return to after-school tutoring and activities such as social nights, an Annual Fun Run, and a community service event that the students select.

During the school year, students also participate in cultural enrichment activities that include picking bitterroot and spending time with tribal elders visiting historic areas on the reservation. They are also exposed to job shadowing, work site visits, and speakers to promote career awareness.

Swaney, who is an Environmental Science instructor at SKC, says he took on directorship of this grant project because of the tragic death of his nephew, Thomas Lyles - his sister Patti's son.

"I wanted to do something, that was how I got involved," he explained, adding that a separate grant proposal addresses drinking by college students. "I put together a proposal on that, drawing from this project. We haven't yet heard about that one. I would like to have a more comprehensive program, to follow the youngsters through the years..."

He wants the consistent message from SKC to be this: make positive choices; don't do drugs and alcohol; and learn about other things.

These “lucky ducks” appear to enjoy beating the summer heat in their secure Montana Waterfowl Foundation aviary pool, especially when they’re being fed by visitors. (Maggie Plummer photo)