FOXY Retreat

The FOXY Peer Leader Retreat is an opportunity for female-identifying youth, young women, and gender diverse youth from around the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and the Yukon to come together and talk about the issues that affect them in their real lives – relationships, sexual health, friendships, and social issues. Over the last six years, we’ve been travelling around the NWT, Nunavut, and the Yukon doing workshops with young women in junior high and high school, and this Retreat is the chance for them to get even more involved with FOXY. The Retreat will be a week of working with female artists from around the North on different types of creative self-expression, as well as the chance to each develop their own Community Project to address the needs they see within their own community and group of peers.

We will be staying at Blachford Lake Lodge, a premiere lodge that is about a 20-minute float plane flight from Yellowknife. There are full bathrooms located in the lodge, with toilets, sinks, and showers. Some participants will get rooms in the main lodge, and some will be staying in cabins, but all of the accommodations are beautiful and very cozy – no tents or sleeping bags! However, you must bring a sleeping bag and pillow (to be packed separately) for the sleepovers we’ll be having in Yellowknife on the days before and after the Retreat.

The FOXY (Fostering Open eXpression among Youth) Peer Leader Retreat is organized by Founder/Executive Director Candice Lys, a PhD Candidate in Public Health from Fort Smith, NWT and other FOXY staff. FOXY has existed since March 2012 thanks to the support and funding of the the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Arctic Inspiration Prize, and our other amazing sponsors.

This year we are holding TWO Peer Leader Retreats (July 24-August 1, 2018, and August 8-16, 2018). On the first and last nights, we will be staying at The Yellowknife Ski Club so we can accommodate everybody’s travel schedules, and we will be spending the other six nights at Blachford Lake Lodge.

There is no cost to participants for attending the FOXY Peer Leader Retreat. All costs will be covered by our main funder, the Public Health Agency of Canada, as well as the generous support of our other sponsors. We are happy to work with many awesome Northern airlines to ensure that we can fly folks from even the most remote communities to Yellowknife to attend the Retreat, and Blachford Lake Lodge, to offer our Retreat in a world-class location.

All young women living in the Northwest Territories who are between the ages of 13 (on July 24, 2018) and 17 are encouraged to apply, but we currently only have spaces to take 25 participants for each Retreat. We will try to include as many people as we can, but if we have too many applicants, we will try to make sure that we have all of the regions are represented.

Possibly! We have a couple spots reserved for returning Peer Leaders as Facilitator Apprentices, so we encourage you to submit a 2018 application if you want to join us again! Contact Candice at retreat@arcticfoxy.com if you are a past participant, because we have a special application form for you.

This Peer Leader Retreat is for young women, those who identify as female, and gender diverse youth. The SMASH Peer Leader Retreat is for male-identifying youth, young men, and gender diverse youth across the NWT, Nunavut, and the Yukon!  Check out our SMASH webpage for more information!

If you have any questions about whether the FOXY Retreat or SMASH Retreat are right from you, please call Executive Director Candice Lys (867-444-9108) or send her an email at retreat@arcticfoxy.com – all youth are welcome, and we will work with you to be as inclusive and supportive as possible. We’ve been doing workshops with Northern youth for the last six years, and are excited to spend some more time with young folks talking about the issues that affect them and their friends.

FOXY/SMASH aim to be inclusive of all sexual orientations and genders.  Transgender, Two-spirit, gender-queer, agender, and all sexual and gender identities are welcome at our FOXY/SMASH programming.  Please call FOXY/SMASH Executive Director Candice at (867) 444-9108 or email her at candice@arcticfoxy.com if you have any questions or concerns, or would like to talk about your Retreat application.

Please complete an application (available for download on our website!) or by emailing retreat@arcticfoxy.com or calling Candice at 867-444-9108.

The FOXY team takes safety very seriously and knows that scraped knees and broken bones aren’t the only ways someone can get hurt. We are very fortunate to have a registered nurse on site during the Retreat who is available to provide first aid in the case of an emergency. In addition, several of our FOXY facilitators are trained in CPR and Wilderness First Aid, and Blachford Lake Lodge staff are also trained in Wilderness First Aid. All participants and facilitators will take part in Blachford Lake Lodge’s full orientation and safety briefing upon arrival at the Lodge. There will be an adult facilitator staying in each cabin, so participants will have adult supervision at all times.

Regarding participants’ emotional safety, FOXY can include introspective activities that occasionally touch on some uncomfortable or awkward topics. While we try to ensure that all our FOXY activities occur in a safe space, free of judging and intolerance, we also encourage participants to come forward if they are feeling overwhelmed, scared, or upset. If they are triggered by any activity, they are encouraged to excuse themselves, either for a moment to take a break or for the remainder of the activity. A professionally trained mental health worker will attend the Retreat to be on hand for the participants, and several FOXY staff members are trained in mental health first aid and crisis intervention.

If you have any concerns about a potential participant’s well-being, please contact us to discuss them.