A program set up to give First Nations youth in Hobbema a healthier choice of activities has virtually exploded.
Less than five years have passed since Sgt. Mark Linnell and Const. Richard Huculiak, both serving in the Hobbema RCMP detachment, set up the Hobbema Community Cadet Corps to help draw young people away from an epidemic of drug abuse and gang rivalry affecting the four First Nations reserves that converge at the townsite.
The Hobbema group, started in November 2005, now has about 1,000 registered cadets, of whom 200 to 300 show up for regular sessions, which are held twice a week, Linnell said.
School attendance and grades among the participants have risen 80 per cent since the program was first established, he said.
“They’re disciplined, they’re attending school, they’re graduating, their respect for the RCMP has gone up, it’s just amazing to see,” said Linnell, commanding officer of the Hobbema corps and manager of the Alberta Community Cadet Corps Program.
“Because it’s been so successful now, we’re starting these all over the province,” he said.
Cadet programs have been started by First and Métis Nations throughout Alberta and into Ontario, Saskatchewan and Jamaica.
Alberta groups include a new corps that will likely be split into two at the Sunchild and O’Chiese First Nations, northwest of Rocky Mountain House, and a Métis corps being established in Wetaskiwin. Other Alberta groups are located as far south as the Blood Reserve at Gleichen and as far north as Fort MacKay in the northeast and High Level in the northwest.
There are four groups in Saskatchewan, one in Kenora, Ont., and one in Jamaica, who all sent leaders and volunteers for Phase 1 of a leadership training program held in Edmonton in March.
Opened to civilian and RCMP leaders, the leadership training program offers instruction in drill, wearing a uniform correctly, rifle drill and other aspects of leadership relevant to the programs being offered to youths in the participating communities, said Linnell.
While he and Huculiak continue to lead the program in Hobbema, they have the support of a growing number of volunteers from the community. The aim, over the long run, is to have each of the communities run its own program, said Linnell.
He plans to set up another seminar in the near future and will also travel soon to Jamaica to help with the program there.
Later on, Linnell will take members of the Hobbema cadet corps with him on yet another trip to Jamaica — an opportunity those youths may never had have otherwise, he said.
Jamaican members will be among the groups to attend a camp in August at Fort Wright, near Athabasca.
Please visit www.hobbemacadets.net to learn more.
bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com