UBC professor Alanaise Goodwill’s research focuses on Aboriginal gang life in the prairie provinces. Photo courtesy Marin Dee

For the average Canadian youth, getting a job during school or after graduation is not too much of a challenge. Even though the job may be menial in nature and pays minimum wage, the ability to earn money is often taken for granted.

For the average Aboriginal youth, however, access to employment is a privilege given that even access to necessities as basic as food and shelter is limited. A report released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in 2013 reveals that 50 per cent of First Nations children across Canada live below the poverty line. This condition is even worse in Manitoba, where 62 per cent of First Nations children are living in poverty.

Now where do these marginalized youths turn for survival? Alanaise Goodwill, counselling psychology professor at UBC, said that, unfortunately, one of the options is joining organized crime.

As part of her research into the influence of gang life in the Canadian prairie provinces with a focus on Manitoba, Goodwill interviewed 10 Aboriginal men who had been gang members in their past.

Goodwill found that many of these youths viewed gang membership as a way out of poverty. Many of them left their reserves to flee undesirable conditions in their primary communities, for reasons including chronic unemployment, violence and even natural disasters. It is also in the urban setting that these Aboriginal youths are most exposed to socio-economic differences and racism.

“When Aboriginal youths move into the cities is when they are at risk for joining gangs,” said Goodwill.

According to Goodwill, the government’s response to this problem, which has mostly taken the form of social service agencies, has not been entirely effective.

“When it comes to gangs in Aboriginal communities, the government allocates its funding inefficiently, with court expenses dominating the funding,” said Goodwill.

Current programs that aim to extract Aboriginal gang members from gang life have found most success when focused on individuals. Through her research, Goodwill, who is herself a member of Manitoba’s Sandy Bay Ojibway First Nation, hopes to reach out to various Aboriginal communities and, in doing so, help shed light on a neglected issue.

“There’s no method that can resolve this issue altogether,” said Goodwill. “The best approach is to isolate individuals and surround them with support services.”