Let’s face it, when looking for change, it’s going to take time. What better way is there than to start young?

The Youth in Charge project is essentially one that brings together youth age 15-30 in search of making a difference, to achieve one goal, a change within the community. This project works in partnership with CCEDNET to engage youth in creating an action plan that creates economic and employment opportunities for the young people of BC communities. The goal of this project is to not only to create community action plans, but to connect stakeholders such as community groups, employers, and municipalities, with young people and work with each other to create a working action that fits the needs of that community.

Why this project is unique.

What makes this project unique is the communities that are involved in this project. Now, when asked what are the economic development problems are in Vancouver, many people are able to list the problems in Vancouver because it is urban and well known. But what about economic development problems in places like Chetwynd in northern B.C.? This project aims at bridging that gap by only engaging in 3 urban communities, Burnaby, New Westminster, and Surrey along with five other rural communities including Chetwynd, Trail, Moberly Lake, Haida Gwaii and Hazelton. Youth in Charge is aimed at spotlighting communities who’s problems may not be as well known, but certainly exist and then challenges the youth in the community to find the needs and to create a solution.

The Action Plan

Now the goal of the project is to see how well youth in the community can identify with its unique problems, then how they plan on following through with that purposed idea.
For example, maybe one YIC group notices that there is an overwhelming number of working mothers in their community who are on a low income and need affordable daycare services for their children. So, the YIC group purposes the idea of operating a youth run daycare fitting the needs of low income mothers and using the profit for rent, utilities, but also for the supervision of a licensed daycare facilitator. There by creating a work experience opportunity of youth and fulfilling the needs of the community.

The YIC project is all about targeting areas such as
1) Social enterprise options for young people to earn income
2) Helping the development of a community facility
3) Creating a community economic development plan that includes stakeholders to help revitalize local economies and retain youth in local area,
4) Targeting training for youth that enhance employability.

It’s all about addressing unemployment and economic development to create jobs so people will stay and help the area instead of abandoning small town developments for the big city.

What you can gain from it

Apart from the awesome experience, this kind of project also teaches presentation skills and allows ideas to be heard. Most groups offer references and because this project will only be funded until Feb. 2009 after that what ever happens is what the individuals’ make of it. After the plan is purposed, and has received approval, the project will no longer be funded by Services Canada, and if members of the groups choose to go forth with the project, they can by using the help from the stakeholders. Or, if the group chooses not to, they can just leave the plan on the table and leave with an awesome experience and something great to add to their resume. Basically a project like this demands no commitment after the idea is purposed and the experience is whatever you decide to make of it. This allows youth to not only find a problem, and then purpose a detailed action plan to solve it, but also the choice of solving it.

Get Started!

Currently the Youth in Charge project is relatively new, and this year’s projects are just getting started. So this is a great opportunity to get involved and learn some hands on business skills, including isolating a community problem then finding feasible solutions to address unemployment issues. This kind of project allows youth to see the difficulties in trying to start a small business or support service (and trust me, there are a lot of obstacles along the way). However, like anything else, one of the most important aspects of this project is the youth behind it. Right now groups are conducting workshops to recruit motivated youth to drive a successful outcome, so get involved. As I mentioned before, there are eight groups across B.C. and you don’t necessarily have to live in the community to work on the project (but you do have live relatively close to make the meetings). So what are you waiting for? Hopefully the past six minutes spent reading (or skimming) this has inspired you to get involved.

I am currently with the Burnaby project and recruitment is a major component to a well planned and executed project. If you’re interested in learning the process of a project like this and getting involved, stay updated with the next the follow up articles to see how this project is going to turn out (I know I’m kind of curious about that myself).

KIMBERLY BUI is a grade twelve student currently attending Burnaby Central Secondary School. She is also a Shad Valley Calgary 2008 Alumnus, and was a summer intern for IMPACT. In the past year, music has pretty much taken over her life and she’s loved every minute of it.

Image courtesy of user "carf" at Flickr.com via Creative Commons License.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/beija-flor/9241241/