The Oẏateki Partnership seeks to improve levels of self-determination among Indigenous young people. This will be reached by

• increasing their engagement with post-secondary schooling,
• increasing educational attainment, and
• improving labour market outcomes

Realizing these objectives will contribute to beneficial socio-economic ripple effects for Indigenous families and communities. These positive outcomes will in turn be reflected in the overall health and well-being of society.

The Partnership works collaboratively to ensure the voices of the three partner institutions, our Indigenous communities, Elders & Knowledge Keepers and Youth are included in driving our strategy and the implementation and benefit from the learning.

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The Partnership’s work includes the following:

INTEGRATION OF INDIGENOUS WAYS OF LEARNING, KNOWING AND BEING

• Fosters integration of Indigenous cultures, knowledge, and languages across institutions, existing curriculum, and establishing of language and land-based education programming.
• Develops culturally specific Indigenous prep courses/cohorts for students that are attending post-secondary.
• Invests in the creation and development of Indigenous Accelerator/Entrepreneur-supporting ecosystems. See pawacikewikamik
• Indigenous ways of knowing and serve as a foundation for the Oẏateki collaboration to support ongoing learning and expanded impact of the initiatives and activities.

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CREATION OF OPPORTUNITY

• Strengthens supports for Indigenous youth transitioning into postsecondary, and onto employment, through bridging programs, and transfer agreements to support upskilling and additional certifications. See BIRM and Indigenous Graduate Student and Professional Transition
• Establishes new course offerings, degrees, certificates, etc. aligned to the aspirations of Indigenous youth. See Indigenous Graduate Student and Professional Transition
• Supports and prepare Indigenous apprentices at all levels, by creating employer partnerships for training and indentureship, in-class training period support, and journey person certification. See Indigenous Apprenticeship
• Includes women in non-traditional trades and youth targets in order to improve the earnings potential and continuous employment of Indigenous tradespeople and employer capacity for diversity and inclusion. See JobConnections

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DEVELOPMENT OF PATHWAYS AND ENVIRONMENTS THAT FOSTER SELF-DETERMINATION AND WELL-BEING

• Develops, delivers, integrates, and coordinates systems integration for wraparound, wholistic, culturally specific supports across institutions. This contributes to ensuring success of Indigenous learners by supporting their pathways to and through post-secondary education and on to meaningful work. See Kahkisiw Supports Model
• Implements community driven initiatives to mobilize, engage & empower community members towards and into higher education