Thank you for your question.
In many cases, vulnerable youth lack certain basic skills. They need job training. They are not yet ready for a work placement or to do well in it.
With regard to aboriginal youth and promising practices, I am familiar with the
aboriginal skills and employment training strategy. It's called BladeRunners, and it's in British Columbia. It's an example of a best practice, with a full wraparound service for the youth. You have to get at the desires and drivers of the youth themselves, and go through that process of what they want to do and why.
There are mentors and counsellors who are there with them as they go. They are the people who are in between the youth client and the employer, who do what is needed to help provide youth with sustained and successful experiences. For example, if employers don't have time and don't want to be bothered if the youth is late or doesn't show up or doesn't call to explain what's going on, then the intervenor does.
It's often for vulnerable youth, with what we call wraparound supports and case management. It's with those kinds of supports that address other barriers that are impeding them from reaching their full potential that we see success. In our renewal of the strategy, we're looking at how we can tailor more of these types of approaches for the different groups, whether they're indigenous youth, refugee youth, or youth with disabilities.
Grosso modo, that's the kind of intervention that seems to work.