The Paths to the Future Projects
Young people in small communities face reduced access to higher education and health care, limited work exposure choices, relatively high unemployment, and more traditional gender role socialization than their urban counterparts. Aboriginal rural youth face the additional challenges of the lingering effects of colonization policies such as residential schools. The questions addressed were:
- (a) What are the life-career issues, supports, challenges and barriers for youth in small and rural communities?
- (b) What has helped and will help youth to access the supports and to address the challenges and barriers?
- (c) What resources exist for these youth, both internally and externally in their communities?
The Paths to the Future research project took a constructivist approach that emphasized young people as active organizers of their own experiences who construct meaning through the decisions they make and the actions they take. In order to understand youth's experiences and understandings, focus groups, key informant and individual in-depth interviews were conducted in three different communities in British Columbia: one primarily non-Native, one First Nations, and one mixed. A youth survey, Person, Place and Perception: Supporting Rural Youth in Life-Career Transitions, developed by Meg Kapil. M.A., was based on the themes from the Paths project in order to investigate adolescent self-concept, possible selves, and sense of community in a rural context.
A number of other smaller projects have been carried out as part of the Paths Project.
