Eagles Fire Youth Centre is operated by the Portage Friendship Centre in Portage la Prairie, and is providing a means by which many young people receive some much-needed help in life. Manager Cornell Pashe says there's always something going on for youth.

"Every week we always have something happening, and almost every day," Pashe explains. "We provide a hot lunch and our main purpose is Eagles Fire Youth programming with activities sometimes in the morning and other times in the afternoon after school."

He notes they're there to ensure the centre's open for students at Portage Collegiate across the street, and operate in a similar way as other youth centres, only they focus more on providing a hot lunch. Pashe says about 30 young people frequent the centre every day, including a mixture of Aboriginal, First Nations and Métis.

He says they also work well with the school division across the way at PCI. "We do some exercises including the cultural teachings, and drum teachings, the language, the heritage, and the smudging is part of it. Between the two of us (Eagles Fire and PCI) we kind of cooperate in that way so the teachings are there. And there are also our classes across the way through their first nation history class. They tend to ask us if we can provide an elder for their teachings. And the elder does go over and they do the teachings. There are so many things that are out there, and we are doing. It's just a small step forward in trying to be a part of the aboriginal first nation, and the Métis."

Recent youth event held at the centre

Pashe explains it's great for them, and at the end of the day, they're glad they're able to help the youth and build better character and a better person, where they can learn more about their culture and their heritage and language.

"We're just trying to erase or work on that stigma that is out there, and that's one of the things that we would like to do, and hope to accomplish in a good way whether they know it or not," he adds.

A lot of it, too, Pashe says, is word of mouth. He notes today's generation is completely different from what we knew back then and what they know today. It's not easy to adapt to change, but the youth today do it quite well. He adds, "In a good way the next generation will see a lot of things happening."