Nutana Collegiate partners with Indigenous organization to build homes for First Nations

It’s the only program of its kind in the province.

Nutana Collegiate in Saskatoon is partnering with a group called One House Many Nations to build homes for youth in northern Saskatchewan First Nations communities.

The partnership, which began four years ago, also helps students get their Grade 12 academic credits in an unconventional way. Students demonstrate their knowledge of math and other subjects as they build the homes in a program called NICE – Nutana Industry and Career Education. Students are typically 18 to 20 years old.

“What we’re trying to do is incorporate both academics with hands-on learning and integrating different subject areas together, all the while infusing career and industry experience, exposure and knowledge for kids,” explained Nicole Stevens, one of the teachers in the program.

The first home, according to construction and horticulture teacher Alan Sukut, was built with the help of Tourism Saskatchewan.

Nutana Collegiate construction and horticulture teacher Alan Sukut. (Lara Fominoff/650 CKOM)

“We were gifted some money to build something to get a program rolling. We built a really fancy (home), with tiles and heated floors and all the mod cons (modern conveniences) you can imagine,” said Sukut.

The home was sold to a woman in Saskatoon who now lives in the tiny home in her parent’s backyard. During the build, organizers of the Nutana program were approached by University of Saskatchewan professor Alex Wilson.

“It was a natural fit with the partnership with what they were trying to do and with what we were doing. And then we were able to secure a national research grant from an organization that is addressing homelessness as one of their priorities,” she said.

Wilson said a short time later, she was able to secure a five-year grant with a national organization to build four homes for several First Nations communities. Each community decides on six deserving youth who are either currently homeless or at risk of homelessness.

“They develop their own criteria and then from that criteria the youth themselves choose which one would receive that house,” she added.

The person who is chosen also takes part in the design of the home, which takes about a year to build.

Eighteen-year-old Devian Billette is one of the students in the NICE program. He says it wasn’t a program he thought he’d take part in, but he gets a lot of building experience.

“It’s a fun experience,” he said. “Math is involved (and) basically how structures work, how small house structures would work.”

The first home built went to a youth on the Big River First Nation north of Saskatoon in early October. Construction on a second house is now underway.

“It’s a really exciting time for us, for that house to be completed and now the person will be moving into it,” said Wilson.