Vital Youth Café, the dialogue and design workshop hosted by Community Foundations of Canada in Ottawa this week, gave Montreal-based youth activist Jonathan Glencross the shot in the arm he was seeking.
“I wanted to see if what I’d been experiencing was also happening elsewhere – this disconnect between potential and impact,” he said afterward.
“It just really affirmed my understanding that we need to create spaces where youth can imagine seriously and break free from cookie-cutter expectations,” said the McGill University graduate. “We need to ask bigger questions, find support and funding. We need sustained support to take a different path. I feel more strongly about that now than I ever have before. ”
The Vital Youth Café, held a day after the release of Canada’s Vital Signs 2012 – Vital Youth, drew a dynamic crowd of about 35 delegates to the stunning Panorama Room at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull.
The day-long event – taking us from statistics to solutions – was marked by raucous discussion and debate, both in small and large groups, as well as compelling presentations of ideas by participants.
“I can’t stress enough how great the facilitation was. It was a day of unexpected learnings and reflections and that’s always nice,” said Glencross. “I felt I was able to learn more things by diving into other people’s experiences … it felt like fertile soil.”
Agreed Amanda Mayer, Coordinator of the National Alliance for Children and Youth (NACY): “Taking part in the Vital Youth Dialogue was a great way for me to help shine light on Canadian youth and issues we face today. I was energized by colleagues around the table and the discussions on new ideas, unique concepts and redefining success and failure amongst youth. There was lots of exuberant dialogue, compelling and practical solutions for GenerationFlux that I look forward to working on in the near future. Kudos to CFC for convening such a great community of colleagues to collectively work on solutions! ”
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Canada's Vital Signs 