Two weeks ago, I had the outstanding opportunity to participate as a youth delegate in “TOWARDS 2020: Canada’s Commitment to Children & Youth” Conference held in Ottawa. It focused on bringing people together in order to create a vision for the future and craft a new agenda for this generation. It focused on exposing successful movements from the past, highlighting our current situation and raising questions for the future. With a blend of stimulating and empowering guest speakers and networking opportunities, the event initiated discussion, which further lead into delegates and organizations promising change. The highlight of the gathering, however, was the emphasis on youth engagement and the action steps present as to how teens can be part of the framework. Towards 2020 asked guests to “look at every young person not as a problem to be fixed but as a promise to be fulfilled.” How to achieve that? The end goal was to initiate a social movement for children and youth as well as to empower all delegates to invest and improve the conditions of youth across the country. Of course, by involving young people along the way! There were many questions raised, but two that stood out were:
“How can we combat apathy and encourage civic engagement?” and
“How can youth partner with adults, for them to equip young people with skills in order to success in the future?”
Bottom line is that we are all joint curators of this society. Nowadays, we all have good intentions but it is not enough to just be compassionate but to act as well in order to foster change. If we invest in our young people today, we can see an outlook of profits, especially since such a large demographic sector is counting on them for the future. At the end of the day, you need to ask yourself: “ What have I done to change the life of a Canadian young person?” and see if you can come up with answers. Personally, I am overwhelmed with joy that such high profile national conferences, movements and organizations are starting to see the potential that young people can bring to the table and involve them in the process. The truth is, there is such a vast number of adolescents out there with untapped latent and capacities waiting to be “exploited”, that it is ironic how they are not being “taken advantage of.” I encourage everyone to keep this thought and see what you can do to move this idea forward in your own endeavours!
