Bright futures at Indspire’s 2020 Soaring event

March 16, 2020

Paul and I had a great a great time hosting the PLT Canada booth at Soaring 2020. Thanks to the organizers for having us and to everyone who dropped by to learn about Green Jobs!

By Maria Chiarella, PLT Canada Youth Network Coordinator

As PLT Canada’s Youth Network Coordinator, I get to attend events where I engage with youth and help them learn about opportunities in the forest and conservation sector and what it takes to get into those fields. I love talking to them, listening to their stories, and offering useful information. I like sparking their interest in the field and helping to guide them towards a career in the green sector.

This was my goal last week when my co-worker, Paul, and I attended Indspire’ s 2020 Soaring: Indigenous Youth Empowerment Gathering in Ottawa. Indspire is a national registered charity that invests in the education of Indigenous people for the long-term benefit of these individuals, their families and communities, and Canada.

We met over 200 Indigenous youth at our booth

Hundreds of First Nation, Inuit and Metis students across Canada attended the gathering. They participated in workshops and met with potential employers, non-government organizations, post-secondary schools, and government departments. Over 200 youth from grades 9 to 12 visited our booth! All were enthusiastic and engaged. Many of them talked about their interests, like fishing, hiking, and spending time outdoors. Some even shared unique hobbies like writing tragic love stories and creating video games. Thanks to everyone who stopped by!

Our career fact sheets were a hit

We provided each youth with our new career fact sheets and encouraged them to sign up as Job Seekers on our website or follow us on social media. It was great to see how well our career fact sheets resonated. In particular, youth seemed to like our fact sheets on how to present yourself on social media and how to network at events. The best part about our fact sheets is that that they are useful across all sectors, not just within forestry and conservation.

Going to these kinds of events and meeting with all these amazing youth is really inspiring. I’m thrilled to be helping the next generation of forest and conservation leaders develop their careers!