Lack of space causing problems for Right to Play program

Lennox Wabasse

Right to Play is an organization that provides recreational activities for youth in northern communities. The organization was promised a space by the chief and band council, but the program has had trouble securing spaces to carry out their work. Hannah Sofea is the community mentor for Right to Play in Nibinamik who is supported by Johannes Valdes, a program officer for RIght to Play. 

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Sofea and Valdes have been working hard to solve this issue. The program was brought to the community as Nibinamik identified that there was a gap in programming.

“Oftentimes after school there’s nothing for the kids to do,” he said. “In order to foster relationships among youth, Hannah was hired to create spaces to run programs, both recreational and arts based. Our challenge when Hannah first got into the role was to find that space.”

Right to Play has used a number of spaces around the community to run the programming, including the new Lands and Resources building, the school gym and the nursing station. So far, they have not been able to find a space to use consistently.

“From the perspective of Right to Play, Nibinamik actually came to our organization and filled out a proposal and applied for our program,” Valdes said. “It was signed by chief and band council and the health director that there would be a space for running programming for eight hours a week during the school year, and there would be 12 hours a week during the summer months. When I came here to help Hannah start her new role we were puzzled to see that agreement wasn’t being fulfilled.”

Nibinamik has plenty of opportunities for programming to come and visit the community, but there’s one issue, the lack of space to run these programs.

“What Hannah’s really looking for is somewhere more long-term and also the collaboration and cooperation of the community and other members of the community,” Valdes said. “When other facilitators aren’t here, it’s up to Hannah to manage that whole group of kids on her own. It’s been a challenge.”

Sofea and Valdes couldn’t run their programs in the school gym because it’s closed for the summer. They couldn’t use the arena because it’s too far away and there was difficulty locating the keys.

“We had to really rally,” Valdes said. “Go to principals, speak to the education director, and get a bunch of the youth coordinators and land-based coordinators at the table to talk about having this space.”

Sofea has been dedicated to making these programs happen because she believes it’s greatly beneficial for the youth.

“The importance of this is to get the kids up and active so they’re not always in their homes and to come out and have fun,” she said.

Sofea has been struggling to find a space for the program, but thinks the situation is improving.

“I feel really strongly about this thing that I’m going through,” she said. “I feel like it’s getting better and better each day as it comes. And I feel we could do much better, more work.”

Sarina Condello is the founder and director of Painted Turtle Arts Camp, which was in Nibinamik from July 22-26. She thinks that because of the popularity of the camp, if there were more kids the space would become too small. The camp was held in the new Lands and Resources building.

“We started with eight seats around this room,” she said. “We had no children coming. The next day we had 2. Each day, and I’m not even kidding, this gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger. If we had five more kids this space is too small.”

Natasha Sugarhead, president of the Nibinamik Youth Council, believes that the lack of space is partly caused by the youth centre being burnt down. Sugarhead volunteers her time to help with these types of programs and sees many strengths in the Nibinamik youths.

“The strengths in the youths is how they communicate to each other and I sometimes hear them encourage each other,” she said. “That’s what they did at the camp as well. So that’s a strength I see in them is they’re always lifting up each other.”

Sofea and Valdes are optimistic for the future of the partnership between Nibinamik and Right to Play. The partnership will continue for the 2019/20 year. All they need is a space.

“We have a worker, we have the computer, we have her office,” Valdes said. “We have everything but the space.”