Youth Leadership Forums
Experiences Canada Youth Leadership Forums offer youth from across Canada the opportunity to lead and be part of an intensive ‘youth teaching youth’ experience, and provide educational leadership development, and volunteer work experience opportunities to youth participants.
Virtual Forum Series
December 4, 2022 to April 3, 2023
Experiences Canada hosted a comprehensive series of fun and engaging virtual forums from December 2022 to April 2023 that brought together young people from across the country. Designed to connect and educate participants in-line with curricula from grades 7-12 in STEM, social studies, language, and creative studies, as well as second language learning, these forums explored a range of topics, including Diversity & Inclusion, Reconciliation, Climate Change, Shape Your Path, and STEM and the Digital World. Through these webinars, participants had the opportunity to deepen their understanding of important issues facing Canada today and build their skills as advocates and allies for positive change in their communities. We are thrilled to have had so many young people join us for this exciting series of events!
“Do the Work” Youth Leadership Forum on Allyship
May 6-8, 2022
Do the Work! Youth Forum on Allyship explored social justice topics as well as developed youth participants’ allyship and advocacy skills. The program began with the delivery of seven bi-weekly webinars and workshops to the 50 youth participants between the ages of 14-18. The topics covered included Reconciliation; Mental Health; LGBTQ2+; Environmental Racism; Disability Justice, Islamophobia, and Social Media Impacts.
“Being able to see so much passion and humanity displayed by all the speakers of the forum is so inspiring to me, as young person wanting to get involved in issues that I am passionate about.” – Mehul Madhura (Ontario)
Youth who completed the full webinar series were invited to travel to Winnipeg for free to attend a 3-day in-person National Forum on Allyship, which took place May 6-8, 2022. In Winnipeg, they had the opportunity to apply their training, to share their ideas and strategies for community action and youth engagement, and to work collaboratively to produce their own podcast on youth allyship and/or advocacy.
“This forum was overall so informative and allowed me to be able to have discussions around topics that aren’t necessarily common conversation in my household. I am really excited to be able to take what I have learned and educate others as well.” – Regan Sentner (Prince Edward Island)
The Allyship Podcasts Series is now available on major podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Apple Music!
Virtual Youth Leadership Forum on Reconciliation
October 13th – 17th, 2021
40 youth from across Canada gathered virtually over 5 days to hear from Elders, Knowledge Keepers, community leaders and youth leaders about some of the inspiring work that is happening right now to effect change. Participants also worked in small groups to develop their own ideas and projects that address reconciliation as a priority and/or answered a Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action. Thanks to our Canada life Reconciliation in Action micro-grants, at the end of the forum each participant received funding to get their project started – Allowing them to become active agents of reconciliation in their community
We are in the process of building a project guide for others interested in starting their own projects and will share it here once ready.
IT’S A WRAP!
2019 Diversity and Inclusion Forum
June 29 to July 6, 2019 – Toronto, Ontario.
This summer’s national youth forum on Diversity and Inclusion, hosted in the Greater Toronto Area from June 29th to July 6th, was a huge success! But don’t just take our word for it –
“Being able to have those conversations and see what living as a Muslim looks like outside of my school textbook provided me with a new perspective. Something personal that I took away from the experience was what it felt like to wear a hijab. [..] While the hijab was being tied on my head by one of the youth leaders, I felt an immediate connection and a deeper sense of understanding than I had ever had before about the reasons why hijabs are worn and what it feels like to wear one.”
-Alexis Holmgren, on the Muslim Association of Canada workshop and Mosque visit
“I was given a quote to read [..]. As I shared her words, I thought of how I could never truly understand how it felt to live through this history. Thinking about this made me realize that despite my lack of experience, we can still help by putting in the effort to learn and listen. By doing so, we can promote the healing of communities.”
–Mikaela Wong, on the Kairos Blanket Exercise
Download the Yearbook for more testimonials!
YOUTH ENGAGEMENT
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