In the fall of 2022, SUILC was asked by the City of Surrey to support their Surrey Youth Resiliency Program by identifying program needs for Indigenous youth living in Surrey. The City of Surrey’s Youth Resiliency Program was developed with funding from Public Safety Canada for the purpose of creating youth gang intervention programs in Surrey over the next four years (2022 – 2026).
To identify and understand how best to support Indigenous youth living in Surrey, SUILC created the Surrey Indigenous Youth Resiliency (SIYR) project. Following the community engagement guidelines outlined in the SUILC Statement of Community Engagement1 , the project was designed to be supportive and respectful to the urban Indigenous community in Surrey, while engaging in a meaningful way.
In keeping with SUILC guidelines for community engagement, the SIYR project included a research component to ensure that information already gathered from Indigenous communities was not neglected. A Simon Fraser University research team led by Dr. Michelle Pidgeon conducted key Informant Interviews with experts in the field who had recent and direct experience with Indigenous youth programming, and an Environmental Scan of published resources on Indigenous youth programming. The information gathered was compiled into an Environmental Scan Brief.
Also, in keeping with SUILC engagement guidelines, the engagement with Indigenous youth in Surrey honored cultural protocols, provided cultural teachings, and was careful to create positive, supportive, and meaningful experiences for the participating youth. This report provides a description and overview our process, findings, and recommendations.
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