A recently-formed coalition of youth advocates from across north Wellington is planning a day-long event to bring together local young people and those who support them.
The North Wellington Coalition for Youth Resiliency is hosting an “all-community conversation” focusing on improving prospects for youth on Feb. 21 in Kenilworth. The coalition, launched last fall with the aid of a $216,000 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, is attempting to assess resources available to youth in northern Wellington, as well as identify service gaps. To accomplish this, the group is inviting youth and those who work with them on either a professional or volunteer basis to participate in the event, known as North for Youth, and provide input.
The coalition is focused on improving positive youth development, resiliency and civic engagement of youth. The group envisions “a community where all youth have an engaged and active role, while receiving the supports they require, for healthy growth and positive development.” The initiative grew out of the Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy Prevention Summit in October of 2012 and includes representation from the local medical, educational, social services and law enforcement communities.
The organization states the current focus for the project is to start understanding the unique youth needs of each community and identifying the overall needs for north Wellington as a whole.
“By assessing what is currently available to youth, where service gaps are, and bringing our local youth voices to the forefront of the discussion, we will be better able to move in a direction that will positively build youth engagement,” coalition officials state.
A survey of local high school students conducted by the coalition revealed many local youth feel undervalued and ill supported by adults outside their own family. It also uncovered a relatively low level of volunteerism among youth, which when combined with other survey results, indicates “a disconnect” between young people and their community, according to coalition youth resiliency worker Alison Vasey.
Making north Wellington a nurturing place for young people to grow up, and later a viable place to live and work, is essential to long-term prospects for local prosperity and the coalition’s endeavours seem worthy of support. Hopefully they will attract a truly representative sampling from the community to help further their aims.
It’s interesting that this week’s issue of the Community News also contains an article on a north Wellington-wide initiative to make the communities of Minto, Mapleton and Wellington North more “age-friendly” for seniors. It appears community leaders are tackling issues from both ends of the spectrum. Hopefully, we’ll all meet in the middle at a place where citizens of all ages are valued, respected and rewarded for their contributions.
