The Whitefish Lake First Nation is working with local businesses in St. Paul to provide local high school students with weekend jobs.
The program has been in the works since August after over 130 students participated in a summer jobs program. Afterwords a survey was conducted where 83 out 93 students in the area said they’d be interested in taking up weekend employment during the school year. Since then about 10 or so businesses in St. Paul have expressed interest in the initiative. Ahsmont and Vilna High Schools -where most of the students attend classes- have both written letters of support for the program as well.
The program will begin with three days of workshops on the third weekend of April teaching both life and job skills. After that a tentative date has been set for May 7th to hold a recruitment day on the First Nations with partnered businesses.
One of the major challenges The Whitefish Lake First Nations faces is remoteness. Being just over an hour’s drive from St. Paul  and the students not being able to drive is certainly an obstacle. However, the First Nation has resolved this by offering transportation service for all the students in the program Friday, Saturday and Sunday