Katimavik
Katimavik (Inuktitut: "meeting place") is a registered charity that engages Canadian youth through volunteer work. Katimavik provides opportunities for young Canadians to participate in five to six-month periods of community service throughout the country via the acclaimed National Experience program. It was founded in 1977 by the late Senator Jacques Hébert and Honourable Barney Danson, a former Minister of National Defence, as a way for young people to learn the value of civic engagement while getting introduced to the diversity of the country.
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| Formation | January 26, 1977 |
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| Type | Registered charity |
| Purpose | Youth education through residential volunteerism |
| Headquarters | 310-1453 rue Beaubien Est Montréal, Québec, Canada H2G 3C6 |
Region served | .svg.png){kind=small} |
Official language | English and French |
Volunteers | > 36,000 (as of January 2020) |
| Website | www |
Formerly called | OPCAN |
In the National Experience, Katimavik Participant-Volunteers live in groups of 11 in two different regions of the country. Participants come from various cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, including from Indigenous and LGBTQ communities They volunteer full-time for not-for-profit organizations and engage in experiential learning to improve their second official language, learn about environmental stewardship and Canadian cultures, and develop healthy living habits and leadership skills. Since its inception, the program has seen over 35,000 participants, including over a hundred in the Summer 2018 and Winter 2019 sessions. Currently, Katimavik is led by John-Frederick Cameron, an experienced executive in the Canadian charitable sector, and a staunch youth empowerment and social justice advocate.
Overview
The Katimavik National Experience consists of groups of 11 youth, ages 17 to 25, who come from across Canada. They travel together to two different places in Canada for a period of five to six months. During the 2018-19 program year, Katimavik had 198 Participant-Volunteers spread across six communities: Nanaimo, BC; Calgary, AB; Winnipeg, MB; Sudbury, ON; Quebec City; QC; Moncton, NB. Each youth volunteers for at least 30 hours per week and completes a learning program that focuses on Canada's official languages, eco-stewardship, leadership, cultural diversity, and healthy living. Each year, over 500 community non-profit organizations are assisted by Katimavik Participant-Volunteers doing full-time work for them.Katimavik has had volunteer projects in all 10 Canadian provinces and three territories. Katimavik has signed partnerships with a number of post-secondary institutions in Canada, including Vancouver Island University, Capilano University, Quebec's public community colleges (CEGEP), Trent University, and George Brown College in order for Katimavik participants to receive post-secondary credit for their experiences.
Katimavik has its national headquarters in Montréal, Quebec.
History
Katimavik was started by Pierre Trudeau's government and then Senator Jacques Hébert as well as then Minister of National Defence Barney Danson. Legally, it was incorporated as OPCAN, a non-profit corporation created by letters patent dated January 26, 1977 pursuant to Part II of the Canada Corporations Act. Much of Katimavik's structure was taken from Canadian Cadet Organizations and the defunct Company of Young Canadians.
In the 1980s Katimavik offered a military option, an opportunity to spend three months on an Army or Navy base learning fundamental skills such as first aid and map reading, as well as basic military skills, such as drills and rifle handling.
The overall program grew quickly in its initial years to its peak in 1985-86, when it engaged over 5,000 Participant-Volunteers.[citation needed] The program was cancelled that year by Brian Mulroney's new government.
The cancellation prompted founder Jacques Hébert to undertake on a 21-day hunger strike in protest, to no avail. He subsequently worked with Quebec region director Claude Raiche to continue Katimavik as an outdoor recreation training centre at Notre-Dame-de-l'Île-Perrot.
It continued in this form until 1994 when Youth Service Canada helped Katimavik to form a pilot program involving six projects and 66 Participant-Volunteers. The next year, the Government of Canada's Department of Heritage provided the program with ongoing funding and the number of projects and youth tripled. The program then continued to grow; during the 2005-2006 program year there were 1,155 Participant-Volunteers in 105 communities across Canada. In 2008, Katimavik was granted consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council, which has allowed Katimavik to liaise with similar organizations in other countries and represent Canada internationally.
In 2006, Katimavik was told by the government that its funding was under review and that it was to cease recruitment activities. A letter-writing campaign was organized by Katimavik and funding levels were maintained until October 2010 when the government announced three-year funding in the sum of $15 million per year, a reduction from its previous funding levels ($19.7 million).
Current Leadership
Katimavik is currently led by John-Frederick Cameron, an experienced executive in the non-profit and charitable sectors. Cameron was appointed to the position in November 2019. His objectives are to increase Katimavik’s visibility, broaden and improve the National Experience, and diversify the organization's programming and funding sources.
Program Life
Participants volunteer at least 30 hours a week and engage in workshops and activities with their fellow group members and Project Leader. Three groups in close communities form a "cluster" that may often meet up together for certain activities. Each cluster of four projects is monitored by a Project Coordinator.
During the program, Participant-Volunteers can expect to abide by certain standards of behaviour which fall into four main categories: participation, health and safety, and respect. Participants are monitored by their Project Leader, who resides in-house and supports the project. Project leaders can issue verbal warnings, commitments to improve, final warnings, and expulsions if the behavioural standards are not followed.
Katimavik provides opportunities to build Participant-Volunteers' skills during the course of the program through youth-led activities and workshops. Katimavik also implements a learning plan, which uses an AARR educational model (Anticipation, Action, Reflection, Recognition) and follows participants through each community. Participants receive four letters of appraisal (2 from the project leaders, and 2 from work supervisors), as well as a certificate of completion upon finishing the program.
While Participant-Volunteers are in the program, they will spend a week of their time in each community living with a "host family". This is a family living in the community that has agreed to take on a participant (or two). This allows the participant to take some time off from group life, while living with members of the community, and learning what it's like to be a local.
Each Every group, every three months, is given budgets of varying amounts for groceries, activities, and transportation. This money is spent in ways that correspond to program's learning objectives. The goal of the program's educational component is to build the capacities of participants in the following key areas:
● Interact with others in a variety of situations
● Adopt an open attitude towards the diversity of social and multicultural realities
● Communicate in both official languages
● Engage in diverse work experiences
● Apply habits that favor a healthy lifestyle
● Develop an integrated vision of environmental protection and sustainable development
● Engage as a citizen
● Prepare to integrate, as a citizen, into the job market, school or other life event
Katimavik elimination, protests, and restoration attempts
In the 2012 Canadian federal budget, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that the program would be eliminated. The stated reason was the comparatively high per-person cost of the program when compared to other government youth initiatives.
A Nationwide day of protest was held on July 21, 2012. Prominent politicians such as Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party, and NDP MP Charmaine Borg supported the rally.
The Conservative party encountered protest from politicians and supporters of the program after the budget was announced. An Ontarian mother, Colleen Cleve attempted to lodge a Class-Action lawsuit on behalf of the 600 Canadian youths who were selected but retroactively denied, her own two children among them. She stated that the Federal government prematurely revoked and reneged on the contract with the youths, as government funding was not scheduled to expire until a year later in March 2013.
NDP MP Charmaine Borg embarked on a cross-country tour to raise awareness and rally support in 2012. She has also introduced Bill 352 to restore $15M CAD Federal funding to the program.
Liberal party leader Justin Trudeau also called for restoring funding to the program; his father. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, had established the program. The Katimavik online petition was one of many launched by the Liberal Party in 2012. Justin Trudeau claimed that the reasons the program was cancelled were ideological differences, comparing the $14M for the community-oriented Katimavik program with $207M for the military-oriented Cadet program.
Katimavik activists embarked on a cross-country movement to relay packages to Stephen Harper, including a journal signed by supporters along the way, a Katimavik T-shirt, and signed petitions requesting reversal of the decision The relay was routed through 50 communities served by Katimavik.
Olympic gold medalist kayaker Adam van Koeverden has said that he owes his own existence to an encounter between his parents, who worked as Katimavik team leaders upon university graduation and for five years later. Van Koeverden describes Canadian youths as suffering from a crisis of identity as they try to define their relevance in life, and that Katimavik would be ideal to help them discover themselves.
In 2012, the University of Ottawa chapter of the Young Liberals of Canada devised a 'Pennies 4 Katimavik' penny drive inspired by the budget's announcement of the Canadian penny's obsolescence and of termination of government funding. The event was intended to raise $5K CAD and to inform the public of the merit of Katimavik and of the fate of its funding.Similar drives were conducted through the country and announced by the project's Facebook page.
2018 Relaunch
In 2018, Katimavik was relaunched through the newly-created Canada Service Corps, a youth service initiative launched by the federal government aimed at engaging youth in community service across the country. Katimavik is one of 12 organizations under the Canada Service Corps banner.
Beyond the Canada Service Corps, Katimavik also receives support from Employment and Social Development Canada.