PAYIKA - Deniliquin Indigenous Youth Leadership and Aspirations Project

1. Rationale/Scope
The Memorandum of Understanding documents the partnership model of operation between the two parties, Yarkuwa Indigenous Knowledge Centre, and Deniliquin High School.The two parties will collaboratively develop of a holistic model of engagement to support the development and provision of School Based Traineeship (SBAT) for Indigenous Students in the township of Deniliquin. This modified model of SBAT will meet the identified needs of this student cohort to enable them to reduce the impacts of educational disadvantage as reflected in the statistics.

This model will focus on A culturally safe/ holistic and individualised application of the student ILP into the new format of a PAYIKA (Leadership & Aspirations Plan- will capture and support the students’ journey from current area of interest, through to the matching of interest to opportunity, the scoping and development of traineeship opportunities and embedding supports through to completion ofschooling and or industry qualification, and toward future education or employment opportunities.

It will be inclusive of both Leadership and Aspirational goals as well as Cultural, Social/ Emotional, Learning, Employment and Educational goals).
This project is in response to identified emerging gaps in the community. There is a critical need to ensure that we have the capacity to respond to opportunities for local employment and economic development. We also need to develop the leaders we need to create a strong future for our regional youth and following generations.

2. Goals and objectives
The aim of this project is to develop a pathway program for Indigenous Young people in the Deniliquin area to engage in opportunities that allow individuals to recognise and develop their future employment aspirations and leadership potential.
The PAYIKA Project has three broad goals.