The Our Place-Youth Matters team is working to co-create an inner city forum on youth engagement at Britannia Community Centre
in October. We know that social inclusion of youth in Vancouver is major issue impacting one's sense of identity and place. We hear
so much about how youth are minimally engaged in decisions that impact their lives and we have to work smarter to ensure youth engagement becomes sustainable and meaningful.
Our goal is to restructure the existing systems of government and to realign systems to ensure we are an engaging youth in decision making positions at key points of community development which builds sense of inclusion and reflect the needs and aspirations of young peoples in the inner city neighbourhood.Key questions we are considering, what's working now and how can we incorporate this into a new model.
What role do public schools, libraries, neighbourhood houses, community centres, police and local non-profit organizations have to support youth engagement How can we create opportunities in all our public institutions that support youth in their neighbourhood? We recognize that children, youth and families grow up in communities, not programs. Youth face so many new challenges and we need to be innovative in how we work together to build a long-term sustainable youth engagement which creates a real choice to succeed.

If you want to participate in the planning process for the youth governance forum please contact Erin Grant erin.grant@vancouver.ca 778.688.3445.