Trans Mountain is committed to supporting access to economic benefits from the Project for Indigenous communities, and is pleased to be a sponsor of the Outland Youth Employment Program (OYEP) in Kamloops, British Columbia. This sponsorship will focus on the delivery of OYEP during the Summer 2020 to support Indigenous youth in the Kamloops and Merritt region. Since 2000, OYEP has grown into a nation-wide opportunity with a network of over 103 communities represented, and over 500 Indigenous youth impacted.

“OYEP is thrilled to announce Trans Mountain’s support of the inaugural program delivery in the Kamloops region. OYEP’s mission is to provide equity and opportunity for Indigenous youth through land-based learning, and the support from Trans Mountain is helping OYEP to expand programming to provide more opportunities for Indigenous youth to achieve their career and life goals,” said Hamish Black, OYEP Coordinator, Western Canada.

OYEP is a local, community-driven based learning initiative that works toward equity and opportunity for Indigenous youth (ages 16-19) through land-based education, training and work opportunities. Youth are fully immersed in a six-week natural resource-based work environment that includes on the job safety training, time management skill-building, remote and rotational work schedule experience and lessons on managing personal work-life balance. OYEP Kamloops 2020 will take place in July and August and will operate out of semi-remote learning spaces to mimic natural resources projects.

“We are proud to support the inaugural OYEP Kamloops project in 2020. They have outstanding programming which provides hands-on experience to develop critical life and work skills for Indigenous youth. Through this partnership, we will collaborate with local Indigenous communities to ensure the participants feel cultural support during program delivery,” added Marianne Fox, Employment and Training Lead, Trans Mountain.

Through OYEP, participants learn how to work independently and as a group, feel cultural and spiritual support, establish networks, build confidence and prepare for a successful transition into employment and post-secondary education. In the last 19 years of program delivery, OYEP participants have had a 92 per cent high school graduation rate, a 99 per cent participant satisfaction rate, and 793 high school credits granted.