Youth Forum In Sudbury
Youth Discuss Homelessness and Workplace Rights Among Other Issues
Mar 18, 2009
The forum was held by the Young Community Leaders Project, which formed from a partnership between the YMCA and ICA Canada's Youth as Facilitative Leaders Program, along with support from the Trillium Foundation.
The program began in September of 2008 and although this is the first youth forum that has been held in Sudbury so far, there have been five focus groups held in the city. The most common issues that were brought up in the focus groups were the need for more places for young people to spend their time, the need for their environment to be cleaner (parks, etc), and the need for transportation to be more accessible to them.
Young Community Leaders Project Volunteers
The volunteers currently involved in the project are trained in leadership techniques such as Group Facilitation, Facilitative Planning and a Community Development Initiative. The volunteers are responsible for such tasks as organizing youth forums and focus groups, and collecting data from youth about issues that are important to them.
“We have 6 (volunteers) in Sudbury and will bring more in, in April,” said Regional Coordinator, Stephanie Chevrette in a one-on-one interview which took place on March 11.
The process of choosing the volunteers, says Chevrette, was holding presentations about the project within the community and having interested youth apply. They then went through an interview process. The purpose if the interview process was so organizers could, “find out more about them and their intentions for this project.”
Youth Agencies Make Presentations
Guest speakers from various agencies were on-hand to inform participants about some of the issues that affect the youth of today. Some of the agencies represented at the forum were the Sudbury Action Centre for Youth, and the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund, which is based in Toronto.
The speakers made presentations about issues such as homelessness among youth and the rights of women and girls.
Kylie Raine, Housing Support Worker at the Sudbury Action Centre Spoke to the group about some of the underlying causes of homelessness among youth, which according her presentation may be mental issues, addictions, lack of education or life skills, runaways, or second generation youth; their parents are also homeless and the children grow up in the system.
Niki Popper, Education Program Coordinator at LEAF, focused her presentation on the rights of women and young girls, particularly discrimination in the work place. Her presentation informed participants that youth may be more vulnerable to discrimination in the work place due to lack of education/knowledge of what is appropriate in the workplace, lack of employment hierarchy, and their age.
The participants were also involved in the presentations, being invited by the speakers to ask questions about the topics being presented, and to share thoughts or experiences they have had regarding those issues.
Volunteering With The YCL Project
If you are between the ages of 15 and 25, and are interested in making a difference the community, or would like to find more about the Young Community Leaders Project, contact YMCA Employment Services in Sudbury at (705) 674-2324, extension 3238.
This program also runs in North Bay. Young people who are in the area can contact Brian Finner, Regional Coordinator for North Bay, at (705) 497-9622, extension 241.
The purpose of this project is to get youth more involved in their communities and engaged in making a difference. The goal is to "create youth driven projects," states the project's information pamphlet. It also states that the project provides a voice for the communities' (Sudbury and North Bay) youth.
