Introduction

Over the past few years, the Nunavut Literacy Council has received many requests for information regarding programmes and resources to support at-risk youth. These requests come from teachers and educators who want to improve the likelihood of students graduating from high school and to support youth who have already dropped out of school.

What do we mean by at-risk youth?

The term "at-risk youth" usually refers to young people who, for a variety of reasons, are at risk of dropping out of school or those who have already done so. At-risk youth may also apply to those who have emotional or behavioural issues. Many factors, such as the following, contribute to youth becoming at risk:

• Unidentified learning disabilities;
• Having low academic skills (not necessarily low intelligence)
• Having parents who did not attend high school;
• Speaking English as a second language;
• Having low self-esteem or negative self-perception;
• Growing up with disadvantages such as poverty, family violence, over-crowded and inadequate housing, or unsupportive parents or caregivers.

These circumstances, as well as others, can lead to poor school performance, negative and high-risk behaviour, school drop out, unemployment and teen pregnancy.

As anyone familiar with teenage development can attest, the teen years are a crucial period of psychosocial and physical development. However, they are also a period in which school and community interventions can make a signifi cant difference in improving the opportunities for at-risk youth. The aim of this guide then is to provide educators with information and resources that are available to support youth-at-risk programmes. We hope that you fi nd some of them helpful.

Please note that we are in no way endorsing the resources included in our guide, but we have made every attempt to include information that has been recommended to us by educators and literacy practitioners from across the country. If you know of other resources and programmes that you think would be beneficial, we would be pleased to hear about them and we will include them in subsequent printings of this guide.

In developing this resource, the Nunavut Literacy Council has adapted or directly quoted from other publications and sources. We have taken great care to trace ownership and to give credit to authors for use of their material. If however, we have quoted or adapted without the permission of the author, we do apologize. We encourage you to bring any errors or omissions to our attention so that we can correct them in subsequent printings.