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104 # R I S I N G Y O U T H C O M M U N I T Y I M P A C T #RisingYouth grantee Chenise Hache organized the building of a smoker with urban Indigenous youth at the Heartwood Center for Community and Youth Development in Halifax. The youth were able to work on their basic carpentry skills and other hands-on construction projects that those in urban settings are not typically accustomed to. While only a few youth could take part in the actual building of the smoker, the impact of the project had a broader ripple effect as other youth learned how to use it while the community received smoked fish and meats prepared in a traditional manner. Chenise's project is part of a larger program called Reclaiming Our Roots: Land-Based Learning for Urban Indigenous Youth, an initiative aimed to help serve Indigenous youth in learning land- based skills, as well as participate in the Mi'kmaw tradition of giving food out to Elders and families in the community. " I always felt a strong desire to get closer with my Mi'kmaq roots, but I didn't ever have the opportunity to due to my father not fully being around. He always promised me to teach me how to fish, how to hunt, how to bead, how to collect sweet grass, and so many more things. With this program I have felt closer to my roots than ever before." PROGRAM PARTICIPANT Reclaiming Our Roots Chenise Hache | $750 Halifax, Nova Scotia NOVA SCOTIA Halifax is located on Mi'kmaq territory as part of Treaty 3 of 1792. LEARN MORE AT WWW.WHOSE.LAND

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