Exploring a bright future – YFEF in the North

Cedar trees, the Skeena River nestled in the Coast Mountains, and lots of wild spaces made Terrace and the Coast Mountain College campus the perfect place for Khyna to do her Associate of Arts degree. Along with studying, spending time on local walking trails and at Lakelse Lake are among her favourite things to do. 

“I love Terrace because I was born here…It feels homey and beautiful,” Khnya says. “I like the way the sun sets and rises over the mountains and looking at our special glowing sky feels nice, and unique to these mountains which you can’t see anywhere else…It feels really peaceful when you’re here.”  

For the 24-year-old, who spent her high school years in the Lower Mainland, this degree gave Khyna the opportunity to take all types of courses including psychology, geography, and her favourite, anthropology. 

“I love anthropology because it helps me expand my mind…I wanted to know why people wanted things and what part of culture was important to everybody,” she says. 

Being able to explore her natural curiosity is a credit to Khyna’s hard work, a provincial tuition waiver to attend school, and the United Way BC-supported Youth Futures Education Fund, which helps with basic living expenses like food, rent, and transportation. As a former youth in care, this support is vital for ensuring a bright future for Khyna where she can share her experience and enthusiasm with the world in a future career in social work. 

Supporting bright minds 

Youth in care like Khyna ‘age out’ of the system at 19 years old, losing support from their foster parents, social workers, government programs, and any financial assistance. Other young people may have a family to fall back on, but former youth in care often have no one, making pursuing post-secondary education and future careers challenging if not impossible. 

Khyna demonstrated enormous resiliency in the face of adversity and worked incredibly hard to pursue her post-secondary education working in customer service at a local grocery store to make ends meet.  

“It was a four-hour commute some days because I lived out on the [Nisga’a] highway and I bike[d],” Khyna says. This left little time or energy for school and speaks to the limited resources available to a youth navigating life on their own. 

“It was really exhausting,” she says. “That’s why I was accessing the Youth Futures Education Fund. [It] has helped me get money that has bought me food and paid bills and rent. I felt safer and more secure with the money there. 

“I could avoid homelessness and being encumbered by my finances.”  

When she had a working vehicle, she would also buy gas. Last year, allocations ran from $30 to $5,350 per student with 45% of funds going specifically to living expenses like food, damage deposits, and cell phone usage. The fund is open to all students on a provincial tuition waiver at any of 26 BC public post-secondary institutions, the Native Education College, or one of 10 approved trades training providers. 

United Way donors make a difference in the North 

 
In 2022/23, the Youth Futures Education Fund disbursed over $550,000 to 537 students like Khyna. Eighty-nine percent of students receiving fund support continued or completed their studies during this period. Thanks to generous donors, United Way BC invested $380,000 to support former youth in care to succeed at post-secondary institutions across the region from Coast Mountain College in Terrace, Prince Rupert, Smithers, Hazelton and Haida Gwaii; Northern Lights College in Fort St. John Chetwynd, Dawson Creek, Fort Nelson, Fort St. John and Tumbler Ridge; the College of New Caledonia in Prince George, Burns Lake, Fort St. James, Mackenzie, Quesnel, Vanderhoof and the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George. 

“In the expansive landscapes of Northern BC, where beauty abounds, former youth in care encounter the challenges of costly education without stable family support and also run into exorbitant prices for healthy food and nutrition every day. Ensuring the Youth Futures Education Fund is available as a stable constant for former youth in care across BC, including the North, helps prosperity become an inclusive reality,” Trisha Dulku, Strategic Initiatives Manager for Children and Youth at United Way BC. 

Of the 537 students making use of YFEF funding across the province, 36% were Indigenous. In the North, that number is 43%. 

In 2022, Khyna moved to a campus residence, allowing her to cut her working hours to two days a week and to concentrate fully on her studies and reduce her stress significantly. This Fall, Khyna will attend Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops or the University of Victoria on Vancouver Island to continue her studies with a focus on social work. Ninety-two percent of students making use of Youth Futures Education funding complete their studies. 

“What’s great about my life is all the freedom is to be whoever I want and [to] achieve anything as an adult. I love all the opportunities to learn and do new things,” Khyna says. 

More students in need 

In August 2023, the BC government removed an existing age restriction for the BC’s Provincial Tuition Waiver program, giving those who turn or have turned 19 in the care of the BC Ministry of Children and Family Development or an Indigenous Child and Family Service Agency the opportunity to access education through a tuition waiver regardless of age or time spent in care. Many students are eager to get their education started and year over year, the number of students on a tuition waiver has grown by 28%, with an 11% increase in Indigenous student enrollment and an 8% increase in those over 25, including a 74-year-old! 

As more students like Khyna look to make post-secondary education a part of their story, we are ready to meet the needs of students entering and continuing their post-secondary education. But continued support is crucial.  

“It feels nice knowing that United Way BC can help me. It means a lot to me as well, that there are innocent and loving actions that are caring out in the world still,” Khyna says. 

Here for brighter futures. Help youth like Khyna succeed. Donate today.