(Facebook/ Dwight Ballantyne)

By Nigel Maxwell

Youth leadership

Montreal Lake man encourages youth to pursue opportunities off reserve

May 29, 2019 | 5:00 PM

A man who grew up at Montreal Lake Cree Nation, and now lives in B.C., wants to spread awareness about what life is like growing up on a reserve.

Dwight Ballantyne with help from Denise Trottier has embarked on a campaign called “The Ballantyne Project.” Ballantyne, who moved to Maple Ridge three years ago to pursue educational and employment opportunities, told paNOW there are not very many opportunities for young people living on reserve.

“There really isn’t much to do besides drink and do drugs, and I’ve been down that path and I just got tired of it,” he said.

Since moving out to B.C., Ballantyne has found work and last November, won the premier’s award for his work with a hockey skills and leadership program. Ballantyne said through his social media campaign, he would like to show other youth still living on reserve there are many good opportunities for them, and invites them to follow in his footsteps.

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“I”ve always had a vison of myself leaving, I just wasn’t sure how I would leave or when I would leave,” he said. “I was very fortunate to have an opportunity come my way.”

(Facebook/ The Ballantyne Project)

Denise Trottier, co-founder of the Bird’s Nest program, has been acting as Ballantyne’s mother of sorts in B.C. and said she saw a huge change in him.

“When he arrived there was no life in his eyes, and a year later he is just filled with self confidence,” she said.

The Bird’s Nest, founded in 2016, is a non-profit organization that brings First Nations youth, aged 19 to 29, out from remote Canadian reserves to Maple Ridge B.C. where they can get help enrolling in post-secondary preparation programs, upgrade their high school diplomas for college and university, or get help finding employment. Trottier said the goal of the project is to show Canadians what life on reserves is actually like.

“Most Canadians don’t seem to have a clue what life on remote reserves is like I didn’t three years ago. I knew nothing and I think I’m just like every other average Canadian,” she said.

Trottier said they will use Ballantyne’s story, but the focus of the project will not be solely on his success.

“The focus of the Ballantyne project is bringing awareness to the fact that there are young people living on reserves who wake up every day and have no job, no where to go, no hope and that’s what creates all the issues related to drug use, alcohol abuse and suicides,” she said.

Trottier said the first phase of the project will be a social media campaign called We See You. Following that she said she would like to go out to schools on reserves and talk to youth about the opportunities off reserve, and perhaps even invite some of the student leaders to come and spend some time in B.C.

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Nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell