Youth Engagement Report

Report

GIVING YOUTH A VOICE - A YOUTH ENGAGEMENT EVENT Lanse au Clair, February 20-22.2014

Table of Contents

Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 3

Objectives ................................................................................................................................ 3

Giving Youth a Voice Forum Poster .................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

Forum Agenda ....................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Opening Programn ............................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Capacity Building – Youth Leadership .................................................................................. 7

Youth Engagement Ecology ...................................................................................................... 9

Bill 20 – What is it? .................................................................................................................... 11

Asset Mapping Exercise.. ..................................................................................................... 15

Three Big Things ........................................................................................................................ 17

Engaging With Your Politicians ........................................................................................... 17

Evaluation .................................................................................................................................... 19

CYN Post Event Survey ............................................................................................................. 24

Recommendations .................................................................................................................... 26

Forum Budget ............................................................................................................................ 27

Forum Photos ............................................................................................................................. 28

Newspaper Article ................................................................................................................. 31

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Introduction

The issue of youth engagement in the development of public policy, municipal governance, democratic processes, community building, and general civic involvement has been discussed in many circles and identified in many public policy strategic plans. Local, provincial, territory, and federal governments and community organizations have identified a clear need and desire to involve youth in decision making and community building.

The Southern Labrador/Strait of Belle Isle Community Youth Network organized a youth engagement forum on February 20-22, 2014, in conjunction with the annual general meeting and conference of the Combined Councils of Labrador. This forum was held in Lanse au Clair and included a total of 45 youth and adults.

The Giving Youth a Voice Forum was a success in providing opportunities for youth to meaningfully participate in and learn about local and rural wide municipal and regional governance, discussions, and strategic planning. It also provided opportunity for youth to interact with municipal, provincial and federal politicians for dialogue, debate and networking activities.

This report has been prepared to provide a brief overview of the planning activities, the program of sessions and resulting recommendations associated with the forum.

Objectives

• Establish an event advisory committee comprised of youth representatives from Labrador, CYN, Combined Councils of Labrador (CCL), other event partners and local relevant supporters.

• Develop a process to identify youth from Labrador and Northern Peninsula to participate in a 2-day workshop that will be held in conjunction with CCL meetings and municipal training activities.

• Identify meaningful participation activities for youth at CCL meetings, which may include social networking, facebook updates, and youth roundtables and dialogue opportunities.

• Identify and facilitate training opportunities for youth at the event that may include municipal governance, strategic planning, opportunity management, public participation, leadership and motivation.

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• Provide a workshop agenda that will create opportunities for youth to discuss and identify future opportunities to support youth involvement in municipal governance and community building.

Giving Youth A Voice Forum

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Forum Agenda

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Opening Program – Thursday, February 20, 2014

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Capacity Building - Youth Leadership

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Results of Youth Engagement Ecology Participants were led through a series of questions and discussions regarding local youth engagement. 1. Youth want to be more engaged in their communities (Multiple Choice)

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Question Results 2. Youth would like to have more say in the decisions that affect their communities (Multiple Choice) 3. What are the top 3 ways For You To Become Involved in Decisions That Affect Your Community? (Priority Ranking)

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4. Youth are interested in being more involved in decisions that affect the entire province (Multiple Choice)

5. What are the top 3 ways to get youth more involved? (Priority Ranking)

Bill 20 – What is it? The Newfoundland and Labrador Government is proposing Bill 20 as a change to the municipal act. This bill is being proposed to encourage youth engagement in municipal governance. The following points will be included in the bill:

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Strongly Agree


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• The council may appoint a person with the title "youth representative" to sit with the council and participate in its deliberations for a term and on conditions that the council may decide.

• A person appointed as a youth representative shall be less than 18 years of age at the time of appointment.

• A person appointed as a youth representative is not a member of council and shall not be counted for the purpose of determining a quorum or deciding a vote of the council.

Participants were led through a discussion exercise with a number of questions to explore Bill 20 and provide feedback. Question 1: What is good about Bill 20? Responses:

• “People are finally listening to teenagers.” • “Youth are being given a voice.” • “Youth opinions can be voiced.” • “It gives youth a chance to share their opinion with the town council.” • “The youth on the council would […] be able to share what teens would like to

see in their community.” • “Youth are being involved.” • “Youth are being involved in decisions [that affect] our community.” • “[It] won’t be a surprise to us anymore when something happens in the

community.” • “Adults may get the chance to understand us […] better.” • “More activities for youth.” • “This would give youth something to do.” • “Cool stuff would happen like more sports.” • “Would help youth understand more about […] council and what [happens]

there.” • “[Youth] would […] get a chance to be a part of […] council.” • “[It brings] different points of view to council.”

Question 2: What is missing from Bill 20? Responses:

• “[…] youth are not allowed to vote […]” • “[…] we get to say our opinion, but [it] won’t really count” • “There should be a youth group for the community.” • “There should be two youth on the [council].”

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• “Other youth should have a say because one youth’s opinion may be different from someone else’s.”

• “Not enough [youth are] involved.” • [Method of selection.] - “How do they choose?” • [Obligation for councils to act.] - “Council doesn’t need to put a youth on if they

don’t want to, when [it] should be mandatory.”

Question 3: How would your community be different than it is now if Bill 20 worked in the best way you can imagine? How would your community look? How would people act? Responses:

• [The youth would be a good representative of all.] • “[The selected] youth can express other youth’s opinions.” • [Youth capacity will be developed.] • “Our community […] will grow more in experience.” • “[Youth] would be more responsible.” • “It would give youth responsibility [because] they must attend the meetings

and they would have a good idea of how [municipal-level] government works and they would have […] input on the community’s future.”

• [Increased youth involvement.] • “Our community will have more youth involved in activities.” • “There would be lots of youth on it.” • “If [they are] trying to get an event together for the youth, they would have the

youth’s point of view on it and how they can make it better and more fun.” • “People would volunteer more.” • “[…] town would be more involved and educated in politics […]” • [Youth and adults learning together.] • “More adults will be involved with youth if there was a youth member on

[council].” • “Our community may look more energetic if you see adults and youth working

together as a team, learning and most importantly having fun.” • “I don’t think council would like the fact [that] a youth [is] on council, or listen to

their opinion because it’s an “adult world”.” • “I could see youth doing responsible and respectful things in and around their

community, and adults looking at youth in a more mature way.” • [Changed attitudes toward youth.]

o “People may react different[ly]. Some people may enjoy youth having a say.”

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o “People may treat youth in a more mature manner.” o “People would be nicer [and] would treat young people with respect.” o “People would listen.” o “[It would be] happier.” o “People would have more respect for the youth [because] they [i.e. the

youth] would have responsibility.” o “People would […] treat others the same.” o “Adults would treat youth with more respect because they are having a

positive impact on the community.” • [More / better youth programmes and services.]

o “There will be more recreational places and activities.” o “There would be a new swimming pool and a rec. center and arena. […]

People would not be so bored.” o “We would have a pool, a tubing hill, a new cages, and the Lions Club

would get [refurbished].” o “[There would be] a mall.” o “People would be less bored.” o “My community would be more healthy.” o “Our community would be painted with teen spirit.”

Question 4: How can we ensure Bill 20 works? What needs to be done? Responses:

• [Informing young people] o “We can ensure Bill 20 works by getting more youth involved.” o “Send out emails and have more gatherings and discussion on it.” o “We can ensure Bill 20 works by getting the message out to all youth

and town council members…” o “We could talk to other youth in the community. We could also look

online.” • [Empowering youth]

o “We can ensure Bill 20 works by getting […] more youth to speak their minds and be able to speak on behalf of other youth in the community.”

o “To ensure Bill 20 works we need youth to participate. If there’s no youth participating, then Bill 20 will not work properly.”

o “We can ensure Bill 20 works by pressing it to happen in [our] community [because] everyone should have a voice.”

o “[Youth] need to have their own election to choose what youth can take part in the town council meetings.”

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• [Building other ties with council.] o “We can ensure Bill 20 works by showing interest, and [doing] volunteer

work with the council when they need it.” • [Council must be genuine and proactive.]

o “Youth need to be given a real chance to speak if this is going to work.” o “[…] make sure someone WILL call you to a meeting, and make sure

you get a chance to speak and be noticed.” o “Have someone you trust on council to keep you involved on the

council so that they don’t ignore you and your voice.” • [Be experimental and try a pilot.]

o “Try things out to see if it works.” o “[…] try new things.”

Asset Mapping Exercise

This session requested participants to discuss and make note of the following:

• Outline the six most important assets to youth engagement in your community: (assets can be buildings, organizations, people, cultural traditions, natural features, etc.)

• What do you think is threatening these assets and the long term prospects for youth engagement?

• What needs to be done to keep the youth movement strong and healthy and to support those assets?

• How can we work together? What are the best ways to connect communities of young people? What has worked in the past?

Results of group discussions: Labrador ASSETS THREATS TO ASSETS HOW TO ADDRESS THREATS CYN Population Decrease, lack of

involvement, retirement spread the word about activities, use the youth centre

School obstructive school principal, destructive activities from youth, retirement of youth-friendly figures

contact the school board, petitions, speak with guidance counselor

Arena lack of funding, lack of volunteers, fundraising, contact

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lack of participants, , variable weather (restricting access)

government, volunteers

Ski-doo Trail variable weather, lack of funding, poor grooming

fundraise

Informal Meeting Places

private property (no way to externally fund upkeep), substance abuse

[no suggestions offered]

Northern Peninsula ASSETS THREATS TO ASSETS HOW TO ADDRESS THREATS Outdoor Recreation Vehicles

rises in gas prices, variable weather / climate change, future licensing issues, destruction of trails

fundraise for trails, volunteer to fix trails up

CYN Center A shut-down, funding cuts, loss of interest from youth

fundraise, increase participation

The Barrens Development, destruction be respectful of the barrens, take care of the barrens, stop development

Local MHA Christopher Mitchelmore

being voted out, weaknesses associated with being human (will get old, might die)

help him get more votes

Hospital might close down, might run out of supplies

raise money, volunteer

Lighthouse may succumb to climate change or disaster (e.g. burn down)

fundraising

How can we work together? What are the best ways to connect communities of young people?

• Youth town council • Youth on existing town council • Engage with town council on youth issues • Facebook groups (to raise awareness over specific issues and to get ideas),

and Twitter to communicate across distances • Fundraising • Working together within groups and between groups • Holding presentations (to get informed, to get together, to build skills) • Find community allies (individuals, business owners, coachers, teachers,

political leaders)

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Three Big Things Summarized from youth input

1. “Giving Youth A Voice” Through sports teams, volunteering, etc. youth are extremely involved in our communities. However, our say in the decisions that affect us is small. Space needs to be made for us to give our input, and our input needs to be taken seriously by the people leading our communities.

2. “Being Young in an Adult World” There is a gap between adults and youth, in terms of what we know about each other and how we can work together. This gap is only getting bigger as the province ages. Opportunities need to be created for us to learn from adults, so we can eventually continue the roles of building our communities.

3. “Rebooting recreation” Recreation is an extremely important asset for youth. It’s where we socialize, develop a healthy lifestyle, and learn to appreciate the natural beauty of our outdoors. Recreation facilities - indoors and out - need to be improved and made more available to youth in order to strengthen our communities.

What “Big Idea” Discussed Today was most Important to you? Engaging With Your Politicians Question posed by Riley Spence (Youth participant on behalf of the group) to Labrador politicians during the Combined Councils Round Table Discussion:

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“Giving Youth a Voice”

“Being Young in an Adult World”

“Rebooting Recreation”

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“I wouldI like to ask you a question on behalf of the young people here today, that we all feel is very important. This is the number one issue that we all voted on just a short while ago. What is your commitment to improving the roads in our area? Its a transportation issue, it’s a safety issue, it’s an economic issue and its something we have been vocal about for many years, with very, very little results. “ What Issue do you want raised with your MHA’s?

Who do you want to ask your question to the MHA Roundtable?

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Internet Access

Roads Youth Councils

Life Skills Courses

Access to recreational facilities

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Riley Nancy Jamie Maria Zack

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Evaluation There were two evaluations conducted on the Giving Youth A Voice Forum. One conducted with participants, during the final day of the event by the Office of Public Engagement and is included below. The second evaluation was conducted by CYN as an online survey and although the results have not been included in this document, a copy of the survey has been included below. Office of Public Engagement Questions 1. Where do You Live? (Demographic Assignment) 2. What Grade Are You In?

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Labrador Straits Southeast Coast Newfoundland Straits

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3. How Did You Find Out About This Opportunity? 4. I feel that the group of Participants at this Event Was representative of the types of people affected by the Topic/Issue Discussed Today. 5. I had / Was given Enough Information on the topic(s) To be able to fully participate in discussion today.

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School Community Youth Network

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6. I feel that all important aspects of the topic(s) were discussed today 7. I liked the table discussion processes used here today.

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8. I was provided with an opportunity to have my say. 9. I feel I was heard today.

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10. I feel that today’s Input/Feedback from Me and other participants will be considered by organizers of this event 11. I feel that this event was held in time to allow for the collected feedback to influence A decision/Policy on the topic

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CYN Post Event Survey

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Strongly Agree


Giving Youth A Voice - A Youth Engagement Forum

1. The Giving Youth A Voice Forum was........

2. The Forum's sessions that I found most interesting and enjoyable are:

3. The Forum's sessions that I found least interesting and enjoyable are:

4. I found the following activities, interesting and enjoyable

A waste of time

Well worth my time

Opening event & Mixing with the MNL Board Members - Thursday Night

Department of Innovation Business & Rural Development (Presenter - Gillian Skinner) - Friday Morning

Youth Leadership (with Ina Jefferies) - Friday Morning

Office of Public Engagement (with Andrew Harvey and Jan Reid-Eveleigh) - Saturday Morning

Engaging with Community Issues and your Politicians (with Andrew Harvey and Jan Reid-Eveleigh) SaturdayAfternoon

Combined Concils Round Table (with Labrador's Politicians - Hon. Nick McGrath, MHA Randy Edmunds, MHALisa Dempster) - Saturday Afternoon

Opening event & Mixing with the MNL Board Members - Thursday Night

Department of Innovation Business & Rural Development (Presenter - Gillian Skinner) - Friday Morning

Youth Leadership (with Ina Jefferies) - Friday Morning

Office of Public Engagement (with Andrew Harvey and Jan Reid-Eveleigh) - Saturday Morning

Engaging with Community issues and your Politicians (with Andrew Harvey and Jan Reid-Eveleigh) - SaturdayAfternoon

Combined Concils Round Table (with Labrador's Politicians - Hon. Nick McGrath, MHA Randy Edmunds, MHALisa Dempster) - Saturday Afternoon

Snowmobile Safety

Snow Tubing

Outdoor Survival Skills

Dance

Luncheons

Banquet

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Recommendations There are many benefits for youth in participating in this type of event. It offers young people an excellent opportunity to develop and practice leadership skills and to learn how communities, organizations, political systems, and key government agencies work. It also provided excellent networking opportunities to meet and mix with political leaders from the municipal, provincial and federal governments. The Giving Youth A Voice Forum enabled youth to meet young people from other communities to share ideas and opinions about issues of importance. It also provided the opportunity to participate in discussion about the value of being involved at the community level, about contributing to their communities and about having a voice in matters that concern youth. Based on the messages heard from the participants and adult attendees, observations from forum activities and the results of the forum evaluations, the following recommendations are offered to support ongoing planning for youth engagement activities:

• CYN should continue to offer opportunities of this nature to local youth. • CYN should continue to plan these types of activities for youth. • Future planning committees should provide opportunity for at least one youth

representative. • CYN should immediately enter into discussions with Municipalities

Newfoundland and Labrador to explore the interest and feasibility of hosting a provincial youth forum as part of the 2014 MNL AGM and Conference in Corner Brook. If MNL is interested in including this forum as part of the 2014 conference:

o CYN should indicate interest in being a lead organizer in this event and o Discussions should take place with the Western Newfoundland CYN to

offer an invitation to partner. • CYN should enter into discussions with Labrador Combined Councils to

review/evaluate the 2014 youth forum and to explore the feasibility of continuing the inclusion of a youth forum as part of the annual Combined Councils AGM and conference.

• Considering the success of having OPE’s facilitation in the youth forum, CYN should continue discussions with the Office of Public Engagement to explore partnership opportunities and continued involvement in future CYN activities.

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• Considering the success, and the obvious need to offer these types of activities to local youth, it is recommended that CYN continue to include in its budgeting process support for youth events and leadership programming.

• Considering the overall costs of this forum resulted well below the original budget, it is recommended that the remaining budget be allocated to future youth engagement events – i.e. provincial youth forum

Forum Budget Revenue

Southern Labrador/Straits of Belle Isle CYN $20,000 Department of Innovation Business & Rural Development $5,000 NunatuKavut Community Council $1500 Total Revenues $26,500.00

Expenses Travel $5526.63 Accommodations, Forum Facilities, Meals, Nutrition Breaks $3799.14 Event Materials/Supplies $ 766.93 Event Coordination/Administration $3051.00 Miscellaneous (T-shirts & Tubing) $ 562.20 Printing & Promotions $ 90.00 Total Expenses $13,795.90 Balance $12,704.10

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Giving Youth A Voice Photos

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Newspaper Article

Documents

Youth Engagement Report