Housing Internship for Indigenous Youth (HIIY)
*Submit the Final Outcome Form and Final Payment Request Form before the end of Fiscal Year 2022/23 so the 2024 applications can be considered.
The First Nations Housing Professionals Association offers a housing internship for Indigenous youth aged 15 to 30. This program was designed to assist youth with gaining work experience and employment in the housing field. Indigenous youth include First Nations (treaty or non-treaty), Metis, and Inuit.
The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) funds this program to provide financial assistance for internship positions in the housing sectors with businesses or organizations. The interns will receive valuable hands-on experience, and develop transferable skills, such as improving their communication and networking skills while increasing their knowledge within the housing sector.
This course offers training and experience for the youth and provides the Housing Director/Manager with assistance. The community could also benefit from this course as the interns will be trained on-the-job, providing more support to address the community’s housing needs.
Eligibility:
To be eligible for this program, both Housing Directors/Managers and prospective interns must meet certain requirements. Housing Directors/Managers will sponsor the interns to assist in areas such as housing administration, maintenance, construction/renovation, tenant relations, and trades apprenticeships.
Prospective interns must not be receiving any employment insurance. If they do receive those benefits, students must agree to stop receiving these benefits before beginning the program, nor can they have a job anywhere else and must be located anywhere in Canada, (on or off-reserve, urban, rural, northern, or remote areas).
The First Nations Housing Professionals Association offers the Housing Internship for Indigenous Youth Course 100 online with a readiness session. This mandatory readiness session is available through a Zoom session, and you must confirm that you’ve watched the Readiness Session.
Each course has seven lessons and two assignments that are to be completed within twelve weeks. Each intern must commit up to three to seven hours to each lesson. At the end of twelve weeks, the interns will have completed the readiness program, readings, an optional quiz, discussion activities, and interaction with other students to prepare for the assignment.
Sponsors:
To sponsor an intern, you must be with an Indigenous government, affiliated organizations, band, tribal, self-governing entities, public or not-for-profit organizations, for-profit organizations, or public, private, or not-for-profit non-Indigenous employers seeking to employ indigenous youth.
The CMHC provides financial support through wage subsidies for the program. The subsidies cover:
- Employment Insurance
- Canada and/or Quebec Pension Plans worker's compensation premiums
- Vacation pay
- Northern Allowance (if applicable)
CMHC also provides funding for the following expenses:
- Safety equipment
- Training skills activities
- Or regular curriculum
Financial assistance is not guaranteed. Eligibility requirements, and the nature of the request will be considered.
The online course the interns will participate in is FNHP 100 – First Nations Housing History and Construction. There is also readiness assignment call to prepare and gain valuable information about the program.
Responsibilities of the Sponsor:
- Pay the intern at least the minimum wage of your province or territory
- Provide staff time for on-the-job training as well as coaching and mentoring
- Support for training and skill development for the intern
- Provide costs for administration related to the intern for example: supervisor time, office space, equipment, and technology that the position needs
- Employ the Intern for a minimum of eight weeks for up to two years (if funds are available)
- Provide intern opportunities to strengthen skills, teamwork, and problem-solving.
To Apply:
Create an account with the CMHC portal at the CMHC website. Review the HIIY guide, available in PDF format and if you need or want more than one intern, the Project Cost Table (XLS) is available to apply for each intern.
If you need more information on this course, contact your Regional Indigenous and the North Housing Solutions Specialist.
Previous interns who participated in this program went off into different areas in the housing sector fields like office administration, client counselling, tenant liaison, residential and commercial construction, renovations, and general maintenance.
By: Tricia Cook, Content Navigator