Campus Cousins: Indigenous Youth Leadership Program

Presented by Rachel Trebilco and Emma Milliken

Campus Cousins (CC) is an Indigenous High School, and now Middle School, Student Leadership and Peer Mentorship program that started in the Indigenous Education Department in the Greater Victoria School district in 2023. “Campus Cousins” is a name and framework borrowed from the University of Victoria and modified to better suit our high school and middle school programs and environments.

Our goal in SD 61 Indigenous Education is to prioritize support for new IED

students coming into their high schools and middle schools, create meaningful connections and a sense of belonging for all Indigenous students in the school, and to strategically teach leadership skills to our students (especially our “Cousins”). With time, we hope to have this program established in elementary schools so there will be a continual family-like connection for all our Indigenous students moving from kindergarten to post-secondary.

The Campus Cousin students (“Cousins”) are the heart of the program. They offer wrap around support and connection to all the Indigenous students in their schools, while strengthening their own leadership skills. At each school, there is a group of Guardians (staff) who support the Cousins in their work (i.e. provide some guidance and structure to the learning and programming). Each of the Cousins and the Guardians throughout the district are supported by the district team of Guardians. There are school based events and programming, as well as district based initiatives for the Cousins to practice and build their leadership skills. In our presentation will will further elaborate on the structure of the program, how we recruit “Cousins” and “Guardians”, outline our training programs, and detail school based and district based initiatives. Will will share the challenges and success of our program and visions for how we will continue to grow and expand. We will gladly share a resource (handbook we created) with the audience for how they can bring in the Campus Cousins program to their school or district.