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A new initiative is being launched to inform First Nations communities across the country about what they can do to help find missing children.

The program is being offered by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection and its website, www.missingkids.ca, along with help from the Assembly of First Nations, the federal government and the RCMP.

"The stark reality that more and more First Nation youth go missing in Canada each year is unacceptable," AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo said in a statement after the initiative was announced at the AFN National Justice Forum in Vancouver Tuesday.

"First Nation youth must be supported and nurtured to achieve their dreams and reach their full potential."

More than 500 delegates are expected to attend the conference, which is to be held at a Vancouver hotel. They are to discuss issues such as ending violence against women, developing First Nations-driven solutions to justice issues, and establishing community-based crime-prevention programs.

Other issues on the agenda include:

• Pushing for the implementation of First Nations-specific policing programs.
• Discussing incarceration trends among the First Nations population with the Correctional Service of Canada, and the potential for community-based rehabilitation programs.
• Developing a national strategy for responding to emergencies and crisis situations.
• Discussing the impact of the federal government's Safe Streets and Communities Act.

Atleo said there is a need for changes to the Indian Act, particularly surrounding education.

"Education should be driven at the local level. First Nations have been calling for this for over 30 years," he told CTV's National Affairs Tuesday.

The AFN's forum comes a month after Atleo and other native leaders met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper with the purpose of establishing a new relationship with the federal government.

"Smashing the status quo really means moving away from unilateral designed and imposed solutions from Ottawa," he said.

The forum opened Tuesday morning with a ceremony to honour women from First Nations communities who have been murdered or reported missing.

NDP Aboriginal Affairs critic Linda Duncan, who is attending the conference, said discussions at the forum will focus on how to end violence against First Nations women and how to better support them in their communities, particularly with better health care services and education.

Duncan cited a United Nations report from 2008 that concluded Canada is failing to offer adequate supports to aboriginal women.

"All the arrows point to the fact that the federal government has been majorly under-financing education on First Nation reserves and job opportunities, and aboriginal women have really fallen through the cracks," Duncan told CTV News Channel.

"And so when they end up in the urban areas they don't have any safe housing, they don't have a lot of access to upgraded education or access to employment, and therefore end up in risky scenarios."

The forum continues until Thursday.