www.benbikes.org.za/namibia

I attended a speaker event tonight at the community market. The market hosts bicycle repairs and sends them to Africa as part of the Bicycle Exchange Network. This is a great way to recycle cycles while provided support to Namibian cities and communities.

One in five people in Namibia are living with HIV/AIDS. Most people need to walk 20km/day to get to where they are going, whether it be school, grocery shopping, or to the doctor. The bicycles cut their travel time into 1/4 the amount of time that it takes to walk.

There are also perks such as competitive bike teams and HIV/AIDS awareness outreach by local volunteers. They promote healthy lifestyles and carry medical supplies such as soap which may save a life because of reduction of infection for those living with AIDS.

So far, 10 000 bikes have been donated to Namibia through this project-funded organization who are based in Australia and Canada. In a place where employment is 36%, street youth are trained in bike maintenance and gain employment skills. They receive the money to pay for their own bike repairs, as many only make $2 per month volunteering. The bike shop is created in the communities.

Today, I attended a Youth Forum put on by the Urban Aboriginal Youth Strategy in Thunder Bay. I want to reflect on some of the things I learned at the day's event because the pride was inspiring.

Youth discussed some priorities:
Community action
Civic engagment
Positive cultural events/gatherings/activities/ceremonies
Gaining job skills
Completing school
Reclaiming language/culture/identity
More positive Aboriginal media
Resourcing youth

Youth discussed mental health:
Encourage youth to be active in culture
Positive reinforcements
Accessing someone to talk to about problems
Create support groups on anger, depression, family issues, and financial
School counsellors could be elders
Counsellors and teachers collaborating with parents and youth
Issues of stress, lonliness, depression, suicide, ingergenerational effects of family violence
Culture shock
Collaboration with youth workers

Youth discussed some challenges:
Teen pregnancy
Foster care
Substances
Teen pregnancy
Gangs/abuse
Violence

Youth discussed some solutions:
Awareness/Sensitivity
Healing with laughter
Youth groups to attend
Expression through artwork
Speaking up
Learning from elders
Communication and understanding
Keeping a positive lifestyle
Safe sex promotion
Create a club
Cultural sensitivity training in all workplaces
Education/awareness

Who we can get help from in the community are:
neighbours, friends, relatives, teachers, counsellors, police

The pieces that stood out most for achieving healthy communities were mental health, culture/art, safety, diversity, action, and healthy lifestyles.

Over lunch, there was a presentation from Photovoice. Alice Sabourin, who leads the project, recommended youth who were inspired to participate check out Nadya Kwandibens. She has a fabulous video on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MMsdl9-k1s

The motivational speaker was from Turtle Concepts www.turtleconcepts.com. He taught me that I can change the way people see me by changing what I do and how.

Putting the puzzle pieces together:
Get uncomfortable
Change it up
There are 525600 minutes in a year
Do it now
Do what youth steps to change are trying to create

Mental health centres are starting, and it's encouraging.

I have some links to places that seem to be incorporating some the values of working as multidisciplinary teams and being welcoming to those who are starting out and becoming involved in their health care or the health of those they support.

The Canadian Mental Health Association http://www.cmha-tb.on.ca/bins/site_page2.asp?cid=284-1627-1632&lang=1 has a New Foundations Clubhouse, where there is support for people who are in transition and looking for a scheduled work day. There is lifeskills training, socializing, and resources for consumers in a safe, friendly environment.

Youth Net incorporates youth engagment for consumers/supporters in centres across Canada. The idea is that the young adults can be facilitators for the youth because they are closer in age and the programming will make for a fun interaction through art, discussion, and recreational activities.

CHEO http://www.cheo.on.ca/english/1030.shtml is unique because they incorporate family and community into the care of children. This centre is one that can be an example for smaller communities who are starting to realize the importance of involving everyone in the treatment of individuals with special needs and mental health.

The Centre of Excellence for Children and Adolescents with Special Needs recently had a conference and web casted their keynote speakers http://www.lcnorth.ca/?display=home This is a great step towards greater attention paid to mental health and children in Northern Ontario. In the future, there will be opportunities like this for young adults and we are getting there.

There is also a good list of Ottawa-based centres that can be found on this link page http://www.youthnet.on.ca/main_english.php?section=viewresource&category=3

I have been thinking of some really cool websites about mental health that have really got me excited about the generation who is coming up and forgetting about stigma.

www.MindYourMind.ca is one of these. The interactive nature and the way you can post things for others to see increases communication around mental health.

The group that I am involved with in Thunder Bay, DEAL, is creating www.heresthedeal.ca, where you will be able to post art and writings.

There is also www.toolstolife.com that I stumbled upon, which is primarily a self-help website, but has a social networking community of support.

I am encouraged by www.mobilizingminds.ca, where young adults will be able to find out about methods of getting help and participate in projects around Canada. I am currently on the Young Adult Team for this project.

Children's Mental Health Ontario has come up with many resources including Ready Set Engage, a manual for youth http://www.kidsmentalhealth.ca/documents/Res_Ready_Set_engage.pdf

www.reachout.co.au is from Australia and there is a really neat simulation game where you can actually explore your mental health by using coping strategies. They also have information about many topics and little fax sheets.

www.youthnet.ca is the Canadian version of this and there will be fax sheets up very soon and they are currently being developed.

I'm feeling really hopeful about mental health care over the net. Although websites are not as intrusive, they can accompany anyone struggling with mental health issues.

At the Multicultural Youth Centre on Friday, October 10th from 5-7PM, we are going to have a Sport in a Box workshop for teens. It will be a chance to learn about the Millenium Development Goals while participating in sport activities and fun exercises.

The Thunder Bay Indian Friendship Centre is going to facilitate and any youth in Thunder Bay are invited to attend and supper will be provided.

In hopes that we can keep doing these workshops, we are going to try to track when the youth centre is most busy and continue having the gatherings on those nights.

Anyone interested can call the Multicultural Youth Centre.

This week I have attended meetings with youth to discuss youth engagement in Thunder Bay and the possibilities for action-oriented projects.

I have been in communication with the Independent Living Resource Centre and he likes the idea of TIG training. Youthscape has also expressed interest in TIG training.

The event I will be attending this month is tomorrow at Fort William First Nation. It is put on by Gitchi Gami (a grassroots environmental group). They were involved in the last climate change workshop we had.

I have a bite from a Westgate high school teacher for workshops and his world issues class will invite me in when they are doing the climate change unit. There are two teachers at Churchill High School who have been identified as socially-minded, so I will contact them next week.

Pathways Meeting - Young Adult Involvement Team Tasks

1. Review Workplan for Young Adult involvement: what needs to be done in next while (resources!)

2. Youth Recruitment Process: materials, activity /task /project team descriptions (realize!)

3. Toronto focus groups/interviews (recruitment!)

4. Logo and website development (reach out!)

If interested Canadian youth are searching for a youth voice around youth centres, be a part of the TYPS youth board. Check out www.typs.com for more information. There is also a project page www.projects.takingitglobal.org/typs where you can find detailed information about the youth board.

We are now responsible for compiling the newsletter which goes out to member organizations and youth centres across Canada.

If youth were to have access to documents around policy and procedure, would it turn them off? I am wondering how to involve young people who have and haven't been to the annual conference with the goal of combining youth centre efforts to find common national projects which could mean exhange ideas and information on a wide scale of topics to a large spectrum of youth.

Youth centres are becoming more specialized and sometimes there are 3-4 projects happening at any given time. Youth will step up to the challenge and progress towards compatible resources.

This is my first update from Thunder Bay.

I have begun work planning my first climate change workshops. I'm looking at two high schools, the first with a world issues class and the second with an environmental group/outdoors club. At both schools, there are people interested in helping as co-facilitators.

I am also in contact with the Thunder Bay Public library about using the space for social networking workshops in December.

Yesterday I met the Outreach Coordinator from the Indepependent Living Resource Centre and they are interested in TIG training.

I'm really looking forward to this year, year three, and meeting you!

At the Rotaract meeting tonight, we planned to do many things to get going on the cycle campaign for one past street youth who is making a difference by fundraising for the new George Jeffrey's Children's Foundation for disabled children. We are also fundraising for a playground facility for the new centre. Our meeting was at the old centre and that area is all undergoing construction. There is a new Addictions treatment centre being built as well as a new long-term care hospital.

Other things we talked about were the Valentine's Day gala fundraiser which will be the biggest one next year. It will be $175 for a couple and they will get a package deal with the party.

Also, the CLE fundraiser was a success. We raised $1900 and they invited us back to do more. We are going to put some books in glass at the St. James school library where the money is going. And put the kids reading books into the newspaper in Thunder Bay.

My TIG Youth Engagement Coordinator position is being renewed this year. I will be working on climate change workshops for September to December, Social Networking for Social change workshops for January to March, and then April I get to choose a workshop topic. I will also be attending an event a month for networking, blogging on the Creating Local Connections project page weekly and doing three training sessions. I'll be working on CLC until April.

I will also be working for the Pathways project as youth team leader. This is a project where I will be involved in coordinating a youth team to be engaged in mental health research about depression and anxiety treatment options. This program is out of York University and will be working at Brock, University of Manitoba, Brandon University, McMaster, and York. There will be focus groups with young adults ages 18-25 to determine how they would like to receive treatment, who they would like to receive it from, and where they would like to get it.

It's going to be a busy year but I'm looking forward to it. I am going to set some priorities for my work and make sure I follow through on everything I am planning to do and develop my ideas by working with others and learning about the place of my projects in the world.

Irwin came for a visit last night to discuss the possibility of having a Child and Youth Advocate office in the North. We discussed having one in Thunder Bay in conjunction with the Multicultural Youth Centre in a space in Victoriaville Mall.

Down the road, we are also looking at one in Sioux Lookout and Kenora.

We also discussed the way that the Child and Youth Advocate Office will be run. Irwin wanted suggestions about the two options that the organization could have. One is to hire a worker in Thunder Bay and that would be grassroots and community based. The other option is to go to Toronto for guidance and get help running the Thunder Bay office from Toronto.

If we get a Thunder Bay office, I think it would help get Aboriginal youth involved in the process of decision making and Irwin suggested we get our message to the urban centres who will be funding us and making the decisions.

Intercity hosted a volunteer booth fair with the Summer student government office. We had a booth and had youth fill out the Student's Commission's children's rights surveys.

The Youthscape LEGO grant selection committee is busy evaluating the allocation of funds for the next year. This new project is going to be a success because all applications were well received and there is a film, environmental project, photovoice, volunteerism project, and more.

The leadership team meeting was great this week and we made some progress in the community partnerships area. This project is going to be successful because there is not a research-driven mental health project like it yet that involves the community in an active way.

I've been busy working on the summer budget for Youthscape and getting the funds allocated to the proper areas for the next 3-4 months. The bookkeeper is looking at the budget for me and the Executive Director will look at it too when he gets back.

Last weekend was a busy time in Thunder Bay. It was the fair and the youth centre was involved in the kids' area again this year. We were getting youth to fill out surveys about children's rights and volunteer registration forms to participate in our programming. I think the younger kids enjoyed themselves too when they were making crafts, drawing, and adding their future career wishes and hand prints to our tree of the future.

The Rotaract fundraiser during the day helped us raise almost $2000 for the St. James School library. In the future, the youth centre should do the vehicle parking fundraiser too.

Terms of Reference

* Role of Committee Members
- Skills and abilities will be matched to working role so if someone is good at something, it will be encouraged that they pursue it.
- Under youth mentor/adult ally – we shall showcase people who are successful and encourage people who have great ideas

* Code of Conduct
- Express our opinions and ideas
- Not persuade a young person into doing something you want them to do

What will success look like?
- Youth led, set the bar for youth-led initiatives and be a model for youth engagement
- Empower youth and build capacity
- Target underserviced youth
- Evaluation and tract record of the impact made
- Youth/Adult partnerships
- More young people engaged/Community enhancement
- Successful applicants go on to be mentors for other youth
- Meet goals, learning, participation from youth
- Youth doing what they interests them
- Natural inclusion process of youth from adult allies in organizations, decision making processes, and systems
- Youth gain the skills to voice their opinions about how youth should be included
- Youth more connected to other youth efforts and groups
- Reinforcing youth involved in projects that affect their well-being
- Youth more aware of how to make impact and take action in their community
- Effect the community in a positive way
- Encourage more youth to do what they enjoy doing
- Have a fundraising committee in the City to showcase all of the projects to solicit support from City of Thunder Bay to have young people ask for grant making clubs that have one grant per year

Principle/Priority
- Funder’s forum
- Conference for awareness about the funding
- If we have youth to practice their proposal writing skills to help them learn how to write large-scale funding grant applications
- Quick action grants idea for small things that are low-organizational
- Meet again a few times in the next little while to clarify what amount of funding we will give to whom.

Selection
- We don’t want to pick apart the ideas to the point where youth lose their enthusiasm
- We want the end product to be a true reflection of the funder and the youth who are going through the struggles and challenges that they are speaking out against
- Are we engaging a diverse group?
- How are we going to give feedback to the young people? Send a delegation one on one to work through the issues, meet the person, and get them to expand. This is important for the learning process of the youth too
- Not any of the proposal should be rejected completely and we could help them to get to where they need to be suggested Renee.
- Sandra has hopes for the evaluation to pick the pieces out that were positive and every project has potential in line with Youthscape perceptive