About Us

What We Do

Northern Youth Leadership (NYL) brings together youth from across the Northwest Territories for remote land-based programming in our spectacular territory.

NYL programming facilitates the development of leadership skills, life skills, emotional resilience, and helps youth develop the inner and outer resources needed to overcome challenges, reach their full potential, and create positive change in their communities. Programming is FREE for all participants. NYL covers all camp-related costs including return airfare from their home community.

Vision

To empower and inspire a generation of courageous, young, northern leaders.

Mission

To provide on-the-land personal growth, leadership opportunities and connections that empoer young people to create positive change.

Values

Resilience • respect • inclusiveness • accountability • well-being • youth connection

Our Story

NYL was started by two Yellowknifers that experienced first-hand the sense of accomplishment and confidence that comes from stepping outside of your comfort zone and realizing a goal.

They wanted to share this transformational experience with youth from across the NWT and started Northern Youth Leadership (formerly Taiga Camp). NYL continues this legacy by offering a diverse range of unique and innovative programming for youth.

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Our Team

David Brinston

Steering Committee
(he/him)

David was born in Alberta but raised in the North and is a member of the Łutsel Kʼe Dene First Nations. He studied Psychology at the University of Alberta and is a Paddle Canada certified Lake Canoe Instructor. His lifelong passion for outdoor recreation along with training in mental health advocacy and wellness has allowed him to work in On the Land programming with youth since 2015. David supports NYL by drawing on his deep experience with the organization, where he progressed from camp participant to field instructor to steering committee member. In addition to being out on the land, David enjoys being active through rec hockey and winter sports.

Goliah Makletzoff-Cazon

Program Coordinator
(she/her)

Goliah is Deh Cho Dene from Liidlii Kue First Nations. She has grown up hunting, trapping and living on the land in the North. Which is what drew her to the Northern youth Leadership Programming as a youth participant. Goliah has been able to grow with the NYL organization from participant to Leader over the years. Through her experience working with NYL she has been able to pursue guiding as a career and currently works for Black Feather Wilderness Adventure as a Whitewater Canoe Guide. She is passionate about working for an organization that works with youth from the North and sees a need for it. The experiences on Northern Youth trips are one of a kind, it’s a place to make connections with healthy role models and other youth, laugh, break through personal barriers, reconnect with the land and water, and grow as a young leader.

Shania Clark

Steering Committee
(she/her)

Shania is a Tlicho citizen who was born and raised in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. She has a deep passion for mental health and well-being that stems from personal experience and seeing the existing barriers and challenges within the North. Using that passion, she graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Victoria through Aurora College and is currently a practicing Registered Nurse, where she can engage with all walks of life. She has worked in a variety of roles with several organizations across Turtle Island to start conversations, advocate for youth and bring awareness to the realities of mental health and wellbeing in northern Canada. As a young adult, Clark recognizes the importance of youth engagement when organizing any programming delivered to youth, and advocates for this throughout her work. When she isn’t working, you can find Shania talking about her dog, out for a walk with her dog or watching a new season of a show in one sitting.

Cheyenne Haogak

Steering Committee
(any/all pronouns)

Cheyenne is a queer & gender non-conforming Inuvialuit and Sahtu-Dene Northerner from various communities in the NWT. Cheyenne currently works as the Indigenous Cultural Program Coordinator for the Northern Mosaic Network based in Yellowknife, as well as serves as a director on the Governance Council for WSCC.

Danielle Wendehorst

Steering Commitee
(she/her)

Danielle is a passionate youth that was excited to join the NYL Steering Committee to work to create more opportunities to support youth in the North. She is a white settler that grew up in Yellowknife on Chief Drygeese Territory. She enjoys art and community work, especially working with youth and facilitating workshops. Danielle graduated from the Aurora college nursing program in 2019 and works as a Registered Nurse.

Steph Woodworth

Project Director
(they/them)

Steph is a queer nonbinary, white settler with English and German ancestors. They are the Project Director at Northern Youth Leadership and a PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics at the University of Ottawa, co-supervised by Dr. Sonia Wesche and Dr. Andrew Spring. For their doctoral research, Steph explores the impacts of on-the-land camps for youth in the Northwest Territories. As Project Director for Northern Youth Leadership, their vision is to empower and inspire a generation of courageous, young northern leaders. In their PhD research and role as Project Director, Steph works to foster opportunities for youth to connect with the Land, build self-confidence, improve mental health and wellbeing, participate in safe spaces, and strengthen peer networks. Overall, Steph is deeply passionate about empowering and educating youth to be land-based leaders. On their spare time, you will find them hiking, camping, biking, longboarding, hanging out with friends, and making art.

About Us

What We Do

Our Story

Our Team

Northern Youth Leadership

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