|
CITY OF VANCOUVER ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT |
Date: |
June 22, 2004 | |
Author: |
Coralys Cuthbert/ Nadim Kara | |
Phone No.: |
871-6044/871-6032 | |
RTS No.: |
3495 | |
CC File No.: |
4102 | |
Meeting Date: |
July 8, 2004 |
TO: |
Standing Committee on Planning and Environment |
FROM: |
Director of Social Planning |
SUBJECT: |
Civic Youth Strategy Annual Progress Report |
INFORMATION
This report is submitted for Council's INFORMATION.
COUNCIL POLICY
On June 26, 2003, Council approved the following:
A. THAT Council endorse the new model and implementation plan for the Civic Youth Strategy;
B. THAT Council approve $173,100 annually for establishment of the Civic Youth Strategy Outreach Team positions;
C. THAT Council request the Park Board, Vancouver School Board, and the Vancouver Police Board and other City departments to work with Social Planning to fully implement the goals of the Civic Youth Strategy;
D. THAT Council direct the Social Planning Department to report back annually on the progress and work plan for the Civic Youth Strategy;
E. THAT Council affirms its commitment to reinstate the City's Child and Youth Advocate;
F. THAT, from time to time, the City's Civic Youth Strategy staff be requested to put forward names of youth who would be suitable to sit on the City's Advisory Committees.
Vancouver Civic Youth Strategy, 1995
On March 28, 1995 Council approved the Vancouver Civic Youth Strategy (CYS). It is a statement of commitment to work in partnership with youth and the larger community to:
· ensure that youth have "a place" in the City,
· ensure a strong youth voice in decision-making,
· promote youth as a resource to the City,
· Strengthen the support base for youth in the City.
It also commits the City to involving youth and youth-driven organizations as active partners in the development, assessment and delivery of civic services having direct impact on youth; and including youth in broad spectrum consultations and initiatives on civic issues. The implementation of the Strategy is ongoing work that involves translating policy, objectives and principles of the Civic Youth Strategy into action.
Vancouver Children's Policy, 1992
The Vancouver Children's Policy was adopted by Council on March 12, 1992. It is a statement of commitment to the children of Vancouver and includes: a Children's Policy, Statement of Entitlements and an Action Plan.
SUMMARY
This annual report provides information on the progress of the Civic Youth Strategy. It includes highlights of the initiatives and actions undertaken by various civic services, departments and the Youth Outreach Team from June, 2003 to June, 2004. The report includes a work plan for the Youth Outreach Team for the remainder of 2004, activities to link with the Child & Youth Advocate and actions to be undertaken in response to a community consultation held in May, 2004 with selected civic staff, youth, youth-driven and youth-serving organizations.
PURPOSE
The purpose of this report is to provide Council with an update of the work related to the Civic Youth Strategy that has been accomplished by various civic services, departments and the Youth Outreach Team during 2003/04. The report also provides information on future work to advance the policy.
On June 26, 2003, Council endorsed a new model and implementation plan for the Civic Youth Strategy. The model was based on a 2002 pilot of a youth engagement approach that involved hiring youth to work with staff to increase youth awareness and involvement in civic matters. Council approved continuing with this model and provided an annual budget increase to the Social Planning Department to enable retaining the youth staff positions. The youth staff are part of a Youth Outreach Team, comprised of a part-time Social Planner, full-time Youth Outreach Coordinator and auxiliary staff. The Youth Outreach Team helps move forward the Civic Youth Strategy policy by acting as a bridge between City staff and youth community organizations, functioning as "guides" for youth to understand and access the municipal "system"; and convening youth and City staff to address issues or work on projects of mutual interest.
Council also requested that core civic partners in the Park Board, Vancouver School Board, the Police Board and other City departments recommit to work with Social Planning to implement the Strategy. These groups continue to move forward the Civic Youth Strategy through various initiatives either specific to their department's work and/or through inter-departmental work. Council has also reinstated the position of Child & Youth Advocate and, as of May, 2004, the position has been filled. The new Child & Youth Advocate is in the process of developing a work plan which will build on the existing assets in Social Planning and the community to further the agenda around children and youth in the City of Vancouver. The Youth Outreach Team, the Child & Youth Social Planner and the Child Development Coordinator will work with the Advocate to develop a broader plan for all civic program supports and initiatives related to children and youth.
DISCUSSION
The City of Vancouver has many tools with which to implement the Civic Youth Strategy policy in order to meet the goals of: ensuring youth have "a place" in the city; a strong voice in decision-making; are promoted as a resource to the City and supported through the strengthening of their support base in the City. Several civic services and departments support and engage youth, including (but not exclusive to) Parks and Recreation, Police, the Library, the Vancouver School Board and the Planning and Social Planning Departments. Staff members in each of these groups bring the policy to life through their everyday activities related to their own specific mandates. This work has been assisted by having a Youth Outreach Team which has shared its expertise with staff on how to involve youth meaningfully in civic processes.
Youth-related civic work usually falls into one of the following areas: involving "youth as active partners in the development, assessment and delivery of civic services" as well as in "broad spectrum community consultations and initiatives"; planning for youth services; providing direct services for youth; providing grants to organizations that support and engage youth; and providing targeted support for specific youth populations. The first area of work - "involving youth as active partners" - has been a primary focus of the Youth Outreach Team. This next section discusses the work of the Team and its contribution to advancing the Civic Youth Strategy.
Work of the Youth Outreach Team
Over the past year the Team has been instrumental around involving youth in the assessment of civic services, service evaluation, service improvement and planning, and in broad based consultations and committees. Examples are discussed in the next sections along with insights they have gained from doing this work.
Youth Involvement in Service Evaluation and Improvement
Service evaluation and improvement takes place within different civic services and departments. While service improvement is the primary responsibility of each civic service or department, the Youth Outreach Team members have been available as resources to them as they attempted to involve youth in their efforts to improve civic services. One notable example this year was work with the Park Board and the Office of Cultural Affairs around service improvements to increase youth access to cultural and recreation activities. The 2010 Olympic Youth Legacy initiative is an inter-departmental initiative connected to Mayor and Council's commitment to ensure that all children and youth benefit from the Olympics. As a result, resources have been allocated to research and pilot innovative ways to expand youth access to arts, sports, cultural and recreation opportunities.
One of the guiding principles for the use of these funds is systemic change. The 2010 Olympic Youth Legacy initiative, which will be the subject of a forthcoming report, offers the opportunity to provide supports to youth populations who are currently not fully accessing cultural or recreational activities, i.e. newcomer youth, aboriginal youth and young women. Further resources, innovation and creativity afforded by the Legacy funds will assist the exploration of new ways of doing business. The Legacy project is an opportunity for the City to test the ways in which it offers diverse youth access to opportunities that enable them to develop their unique gifts and talents while, at the same time, promoting their health.
One key component of the 2010 Initiative is meaningful youth and community involvement. Resources will also be made available for professional development opportunities to train youth workers throughout Vancouver on different ways to involve youth in service design, delivery and assessment. Further resources are available to support youth themselves to self-organize to tap into their passions and address their own needs and interests, i.e. through participatory action research projects.
Youth Involvement in Service Planning
Sustaining meaningful youth involvement in on-going service planning is challenging. Most youth prefer to be involved in tangible, hands-on projects that directly and clearly affect their lived experiences.
With the right supports, youth are able to participate effectively in broader service planning. One example of where Social Planning and the Youth Outreach Team have supported youth involvement in service planning is on the Youth Working Group of the Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness. Social Planning, along with the District of North Vancouver, found resources to pilot a new model of youth engagement in this initiative. Funds were found to resource a Youth Community Developer to support a group of eight at-risk youth to participate in decision-making related to the distribution of Federal homelessness alleviation funds. The pilot was so successful that the youth were given voting seats on the Regional Steering Committee and have received annualized financial support from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada to ensure continued youth participation. This model demonstrates that at-risk youth can be effectively supported to contribute their unique expertise and perspectives to public policy and service planning.
A second exploration of supporting on-going youth involvement in service planning will unfold in summer and fall, 2004 in relation to the youth portion of the 4-Pillars Prevention Strategy. The Youth Outreach Team, is working with the City's Drug Policy Team to train two youths from the youth-driven community, who in turn will train twenty youths from diverse backgrounds as facilitators. These twenty youths will lead two dialogue sessions with their peers about the prevention of problematic drug use, and will receive support to inform the youth chapter of the City's prevention strategy. Participating youth will have an opportunity to articulate a vision for the healthy development of youths, families and communities and continue to steward the implementation of that vision after the consultation (pending the confirmation of resources through the Vancouver Agreement).
Youth Involvement in Broad Based Community Consultations
The Youth Outreach Team has provided support to several departments with both, a mandate and an interest to engage youth in municipally focused public forums, neighbourhood planning consultations and civic committees.
Forums
The Team has reached out to involve and support youth participation in public forums on such topics as the City Choices Budget Forum, the Prevention Strategy Forum, and the Police Board Youth Forum. The Youth Outreach Team's experience suggests that public forums are more effective in finding out what youths think when youths receive advance preparation, i.e. a pre-forum discussion/education process.
One role the Team played in some of these pre-forum processes was to: distill information into accessible formats; host a pre-forum information session with the purpose of sharing materials and providing time for peer discussion of the forum topic. As a result, youths were better prepared to attend the forum, and contribute in an informed manner. The effects of such a process are maximised even further when youths have the support of youth workers, teachers and youth groups on an ongoing basis leading up to a forum.
The Youth Outreach Team has learned from post evaluation sessions and youth feedback that future best practice for successful youth engagement in public forums requires substantial preparation, time and resources. Organizers of civic forums will be more successful in engaging youths if they consciously implement this approach in advance.
Neighbourhood Planning Consultations
The Youth Outreach Team has provided different levels of support for youth engagement in various Planning processes, such as the public consultation processes related to PNE/Hastings Park, East Fraser Lands, Collingwood/Renfrew, and Victoria/Fraserview/Killarney. These processes provided opportunities for youths to activate their citizenship in ways that are very promising for promoting on-going civic engagement, according to the latest research. This research supports the involvement of youths in activities that:
· are localized and neighbourhood-based;
· offer tangible, hands-on opportunities for experiential learning;
· unfold in ways that are inclusive and supportive of diverse youths;
· allow for autonomous youth decision making with appropriate adult support;
· have support and resources from public institutions;
· allow youths to contribute their unique gifts and skills as appropriate.
These activities lay the foundation for on-going involvement in community affairs. One need only look at the invaluable participation of youth community gardeners (working with the Environmental Youth Alliance) in the Food Policy Task Force to see the role that local action projects can play in strengthening the capacity of youths to participate in governance and stewardship of public space.
Within the Planning Department's Community Visions process, youths are engaged in consultations around neighbourhood planning through a range of methodologies. Youths are also supported to participate in community level decision-making around the Community Visions implementation process. To strengthen youths' involvement in local neighbourhood planning processes, the Team will be working with City Plans staff to develop clear roles and responsibilities for future projects to ensure that youth engagement in the Visioning and Implementation of Vision's plans occurs in a consistent manner.
Civic Committees
The Youth Outreach Team has also recruited youths for advisory committees. In some cases, this has entailed some initial support to the youths to help them in their new role. Some of the civic committees that have used the Team's assistance to recruit youth members, include the Police Chief's Diversity Advisory Committee, the Women's Task Force, the PNE Task Force and the Cool Vancouver Task Force.
Other Youth Outreach Team Projects
As another method of reaching out to engage youths in City-related activities, the Outreach Team tried leading groups of youths in specific projects. While these projects resulted in useful outcomes, they took a significant amount of time. The Team has reconsidered its role in leading projects with groups of youths and have determined that only in strategic instances would they take on more of a "youth worker" role supporting a group of youths through task-oriented projects. The Team's resources are better used to connect youths to civic or community partners who can provide this more intensive support. For further discussion on the Team's role, see Appendix C. Below are a few examples of hands-on projects lead by the Team:
· Poster Project - The goal of the Poster Project was to develop a bus shelter poster that would raise awareness about the Civic Youth Strategy while celebrating youth voice and youth as a resource throughout the City. The development of the images for the bus shelter poster involved outreach to five Vancouver secondary schools where students were engaged in critical analysis of how they see youth being perceived in society. The students then developed images that were put together into a poster with the help of an artist. The bus shelter advertisement will be posted in Vancouver during July and August, 2004.
· Envisions - Youths from John Oliver Secondary School were supported to curate an art show during 2004 Youth Week at the Roundhouse. The goal of this project was to develop a youth-driven event facilitated by staff; to provide opportunities for youth to learn about curating and administrating an event; to host a City-wide event showcasing youths' talent to other youths and the community at large; to achieve cross-cultural interaction and to include the visual, performing, literary, spoken word and media arts.
· Chinatown/Strathcona Neighbourhood Video - This project was related to the Chinatown Revitalization project and involved a partnership with Pacific Cinematheque, the Youth Outreach Team and Downtown Eastside Revitalization staff, to mentor youth living in the Chinatown area to use film making as a way to record their experience of living in the neighbourhood. Environmental Youth Alliance facilitated community mapping workshops with these youths so they would have a tool to view their neighbourhood through different lenses. The goal of the final product was to assist youths with having a voice into the neighbourhood revitalization process.
Next Steps for the Youth Outreach Team
The Youth Outreach Team has spent the last two years testing out different tools and strategies to activate youth citizenship and enable meaningful youth participation in municipal decision-making. Over this time, the Team has worked on a range of projects with a number of different partners, playing very diverse roles. Looking back at the variety of actions and activities the Team has been part of, the Team decided to engage their key stakeholders to help them identify and articulate their unique niche in the landscape of the youth community. These sessions, held in May, 2004, helped the Team to clarify its purpose, role, and constituents. The Youth Outreach Team has reaffirmed its primary purpose, which is to increase the meaningful participation of youths in municipal decision-making. In pursuit of this purpose, the Team will support City staff to engage youths meaningfully in consultation and decision-making processes, they will support community partners to involve youths in their programs to engage with municipal government, and they will support youths and youth groups to engage municipal government directly in order to address issues of importance to them. Another recommendation of the consultation process was that the Team becomes more transparent and accountable to the broader youth community as it performs its work. Over the next year, the team will explore developing and implementing an evaluation of its work that will involve youths, civic staff and youth-driven/youth-serving organizations.
Youth Outreach Team 2004 Work Plan Highlights
The Team has developed a work plan that includes ongoing projects begun in 2004 and a summary of the work it is proposing to do in response to priorities identified during the May, 2004, feedback consultation. This is provided in Appendix C. Some highlights of its proposed work are as follows:
· Training City staff in youth engagement best practices as part of the staff development - "City Learn" program;
· Prevention Pillar - Engaging youths in the development of a youth component to the strategy around the prevention of problematic drug use;
· Working with Planning Department to consistently involve youth in neighbourhood-based planning processes;
· Building stronger connections to the aboriginal youth community.
Civic Youth Strategy Work Implemented by Civic Services and Departments
This section provides information on how the City supports and engages youths including highlights on specific activities (see Appendix A for complete list). While this work is largely carried out by the various groups, some of the activities may have also involved assistance from the Youth Outreach Team.
Planning for Youth Services
Planning for youth services usually occurs with other funders, other levels of government, and service providers, to address needs, to maximise resources and to avoid duplication of services. The City engages in this planning in some of the following ways:
· Youth Funders Network - Social Planning, MCFD, VSB, VCH, the Vancouver Foundation, the United Way of the Lower Mainland and other senior levels of government who fund at-risk youth services, are working together to inventory youth services in Vancouver and to develop a City-wide plan for at-risk youth services (i.e. the Hub Model);
· Homelessness Action Plan - The Housing Centre is developing a homelessness action plan for Vancouver nested within the work of the Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness. This Vancouver plan includes a chapter on youth;
· Methamphetamine Response Committee - this committee is led by Vancouver Coastal Health and includes many youth- serving organizations that are developing a number of projects for the prevention, treatment and long-term support of crystal meth users.
· School Safety - The Vancouver Police Department is developing a committee and protocol to manage all School Board/Police Department relations.
Direct Services and Grants
The City of Vancouver continues to provide key services in the landscape of youth supports. Compared to other youth funding sources, City services and programs are relatively stable and emphasize universally accessible prevention-oriented supports, i.e. Park Board community centre youth workers or Library services focused on children and youths. This commitment to prevention will be enhanced by two other municipal initiatives: the youth portion of the Prevention Strategy being developed by the City's Drug Policy Team, and the 2010 Olympic Youth Legacy initiative. Here are some of the highlights of work that involves direct services.
· Partners at Work - This is a partnership involving the City and Vancouver School Board in an annual work experience/job shadowing program for Grade 11 and 12 career preparation students. All civic services and departments host up to 140 students each spring providing them with an opportunity to experience a wide variety of civic work. This year, there was a special stream for aboriginal students who were exposed to training requirements and various aspects of fire fighting.
· 2010 Olympic Youth Legacy - The Park Board, Office of Cultural Affairs and Social Planning are developing a framework and implementation plan dedicated to expanding access by youths in Vancouver to recreational and cultural activities, and involving youths and community partners in this process.
· Youth Worker Training - Park Board is piloting the development of an outcomes measurement model (at four sites) to support youth workers to effectively implement the community youth development model (Thunderbird, Riley Park, Renfrew and Ray-Cam).
· Police School Liaison Officers - Vancouver Police Department Youth Services (VPD) School Liaison Officers are working in Vancouver schools to develop positive relationships with youths and assist with crime prevention activities.
· Class Action - The Vancouver Public Library offers a welcoming place for youths along with literacy supports and innovative programming. An example of this is a two-day conference called Class Action where VPL, with Check Your Head, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Charter for Public Education Network, will provide youths with an opportunity to ask questions and discuss public education in BC.
Council provides grants to youth-driven and youth serving organizations through the Community Services Grants Program. This grant program is administered by the Social Planning Department and provides financial assistance to over twenty organizations that provide services ranging from violence prevention programs to outreach supports for at-risk youths.
Targeted Supports for Specific Youth Populations
The City uses a number of the already mentioned supports to assist specific youth populations. These supports include direct services and/or grants (i.e. Social Planning grants to organizations to fund ethno-specific youth workers); population-specific service planning (i.e. Social Planning works with Immigrant Services Society to convene people who work with newcomer youth to inventory existing services, identify gaps and collaboratively design solutions); and involving youth from specific populations in consultations and decision making that impacts their lives (i.e. Engineering, Central Area Planning, Social Planning and Covenant House Vancouver engage youth from the Downtown South in a stakeholder group and consultation related to the redesign of Granville Street).
Some highlights of work to support specific youth populations are:
· Youths from Mainland China project - Park Board, School Board and Social Planning are exploring how the recreation system and ESL system can better support older newcomer youths from Mainland China (pilot project undertaken by Churchill School, SUCCESS, Environmental Youth Alliance and Marpole Community Centre).
· Supporting newcomer youths - Social Planning is Working with community partners to convene service providers who work with new immigrant and refugee youths to map out the landscape of supports and identify gaps.
· Aboriginal Youth Centre - Social Planning is supporting Urban Native Youth Association to develop an Aboriginal Youth Centre.
· Dusk 2 Dawn - Social Planning is supporting efforts to develop a youth hub service centre for street involved youths in the Downtown South area.
· Storyscapes - Our City Our Voices - Social Planning, with National Film Board, has trained aboriginal youths to use video as a tool to record the stories of their elders related to the historical aboriginal presence in Vancouver.
CONCLUSION
The progress of the Civic Youth Strategy continues to involve many civic and community partners. More youths have participated in civic processes and civic staff have continued to utilize, test and learn new ways to include youths in decision-making processes. The Youth Outreach Team has contributed to this by assisting and/or sharing their knowledge on how to create more meaningful ways for youths to be involved in City-related consultation processes and the design and assessment of civic services. The Child & Youth Advocate will be working with the staff team and community to further enhance the Civic Youth Strategy.
* * * * *
Appendix A
Highlights of how the City of Vancouver supports youth
Type of Work |
CYS Goal |
Description |
Civic Service/Department | ||
DIRECT SERVICES | |||||
Partners at Work |
Resource |
140 students receive job shadowing and work experiences |
Interdepartmental (all civic services) | ||
2010 Olympic Youth Legacy |
Place Resource Support Base Voice |
Developing a framework and implementation plan for the use of funds dedicated to expanding youth access to recreational and cultural activities |
Interdepartmental (Office of Cultural Affairs, Park Board, & Social Planning) | ||
Youth Workers |
Support Base |
Piloting an outcomes measurement model to support youth workers to effectively implement the community youth development model (Thunderbird, Riley Park, Renfrew and Ray-Cam) |
Park Board | ||
Youth Worker Training |
Support Base |
Provided workshops on human development for youth workers and other community partners |
Park Board with Drs. Kim Schonert-Reichel and Clyde Hertzman | ||
Healthy Choices Camps |
Support Base |
Healthy Choices summer camps with Legacies Now resources |
Park Board | ||
Mayor's Skate |
Place |
Arranged free skating over Christmas to kick-off the Olympic Youth Legacy work |
Park Board | ||
Youth Week 2004 |
Resource |
Celebrating youth achievement city-wide |
Park Board, with support from Social Planning | ||
School Liaison Officers - Student Challenge Program |
Resource |
School Liaison Officers introduce youth from across the City to policing as a career |
Vancouver Police Department Youth Services | ||
Class Action |
Support Base, Voice |
2-day conference hosted by VPL for youth to explore questions about public education in BC. |
VPL , Check Your Head, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Charter for Public Education Network | ||
Write Now! |
Support Base |
A creative writing workshop for youth aged 16-18. Sessions explore writing strategies and how the publishing industry works. |
Vancouver Public Library System (VPL) | ||
Graphic Novel Book-club |
Support Base |
A discussion group for teens 16-18 to get together and talk about what they are reading. Books and snacks provided. |
VPL | ||
Spring Breakout! |
Resource Support Base |
Music event providing local Vancouver high-school bands a place to showcase their talent with representatives from the local music industry available to provide feedback. Partnership with Tom Lee Records. |
VPL | ||
Graffiti Management - School Education Program |
Voice |
Engineering staff go into schools to provide information on impacts of graffiti on the community, the economy, etc. and also facilitate discussion on related issues |
Engineering | ||
Type of Work |
CYS Goal |
Description |
Civic Service/Department |
PLANNING FOR YOUTH SERVICES | |||
Youth Funders Network |
Support Base |
Developing a city-wide plan for youth-at-risk(Hub model) and an inventory of youth services funded in Vancouver |
Social Planning |
Homelessness Action Plan |
Place, Support Base |
Developing a plan for Vancouver that is nested within the work of the Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness; includes youth chapter |
Housing Centre |
Methamphetamine Response Committee |
Support Base |
VCHA with youth-serving organizations is developing responses to address the misuse of crystal meth. |
Vancouver Coastal Health Authority/Social Planning |
Youth Organizations |
Support Base |
Continuing to fund a range of youth organizations like kinex youth initiative (c/o Self Help Resource Association), Youth Mappers (c/o Environmental Youth Alliance) and Leave Out ViolencE |
Social Planning - Community Service Grants |
School Safety |
Support Base |
Developing a committee and protocol to manage all School Board/Police Department relations |
Vancouver Police Department |
Windows of Opportunity - Coalition of Children and Youth |
Support Base |
Windows of Opportunity contracted EYA to hold consultations with youth service providers to strengthen their capacity to collaborate on city wide youth issues |
Social Planning |
Ministry for Children and Family Development |
Support Base |
Monitoring changes to youth services contracts as MCFD shifts to a "youth hub" model |
Social Planning |
Vancouver Agreement Youth Task Team |
Resource, Support Base, Voice |
Supporting Youth Task Team to develop a strategy for meaningful youth and community involvement in Vancouver Agreement decision making |
Social Planning |
Aboriginal Youth on Commercial Drive |
Support Base |
Working with community partners concerned with the numbers of aboriginal youth interacting with police officers through engaging in high-risk activities |
Interdepartmental (Police Department, Social Planning, community partners) |
Youth from Mainland China project |
Place, Support Base |
Exploring how the recreation system and ESL system can better support older newcomer youth from Mainland China (pilot project undertaken by Churchill School, SUCCESS, Environmental Youth Alliance and Marpole Community Centre) |
Interdepartmental
|
Type of Work |
CYS Goal |
Description |
Civic Service/Department |
TARGETED SUPPORTS FOR SPECIFIC YOUTH POPULATIONS | |||
Supporting newcomer youth |
Support Base |
Working with community partners to convene service providers working with new immigrant and refugee youth to map out landscape of supports and identify gaps |
Social Planning |
International Students |
Support Base |
Working with community partners to ensure international students are given appropriate education and support to stay safe |
Social Planning |
Supporting diverse youth populations |
Support Base |
Funding supports for specific communities of youth through programs like:
|
Social Planning - Community Service Grants |
Under-age Safe House |
Resource, Support Base, Voice |
Liaising with a group of former clients of an MCFD funded under-age safe house to support their efforts to have voice around MCFD contract restructuring and access appropriate information and training |
RayCam, Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Safety Office with Social Planning |
Aboriginal Youth Centre |
Place, Support Base |
Supporting Urban Native Youth Association to develop an Aboriginal Youth Centre |
Social Planning |
Downtown South Hub (Dusk 2 Dawn) |
Place, Support Base |
Supporting efforts to develop a youth service centre for street involved youth |
Social Planning |
Storyscapes - Our City Our Voices |
Place, Resource |
Training aboriginal youth to use video as a tool to record the stories of their elders related to the historical aboriginal presence in Vancouver |
Social Planning with National Film Board |
Type of Work |
CYS Goal |
Description |
Department |
CONSULTATION AND DECISION MAKING | |||
Granville Street Redesign |
Place, Resource, Voice |
Youth representatives included on a stakeholders committee Youth representatives supported to hold a consultation with youth who use and/or live on Granville Street to inform the stakeholder consultation process |
Interdepartmental (Central Area Planning, Engineering) |
Youth and Homelessness |
Voice |
Supported development of a model for meaningful youth involvement in the Youth Working Group of the Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness |
Social Planning with other municipal reps (i.e. North Vancouver) |
Youth and Police |
Voice |
Police Board invited youth to speak directly to them via a public youth forum |
Police Board |
Youth and Police |
Voice |
Chief's Office created two spots for youth on the Diversity Advisory Committee |
Office of the Chief of Police |
Youth and Planning |
Place, Voice |
City Plans' staff members made extra efforts to include youth in Community Visions and Implementations processes (neighbourhood planning) |
City Plans |
Youth Prevention Strategy |
Resource, Support Base, Voice |
4 Pillars Staff providing training and support for two youth facilitators to train twenty youth from diverse youth populations to hold focus groups to assist in the development of the Prevention Pillar |
Drug Policy Coordinator |
Graffiti Management - Mural Program |
Place, Voice |
Engineering staff (often in partnership with youth workers) look for input from youth (including graffiti artists) around location, design and content of murals throughout Vancouver |
Engineering |
APPENDIX B
YOUTH OUTREACH TEAM PROJECTS SINCE JUNE 2003
1. Support City staff to engage youths meaningfully in consultations and decision-making that are particularly, but not solely, related to "the development, assessment, and delivery of civic services that have a direct impact on youth"
· Received a contract from Engineering Services to re-design and co-deliver Graffiti Management workshops in local schools;
· Provided a training on youth engagement to City Councillors at Union of BC Municipalities Conference, with partners like Environmental Youth Alliance;
· Worked with staff from the Environmental Youth Alliance to involve youths in the evaluation of the Park Board art policy;
· Encouraged implementation partner of the Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness (SPARC-BC) to contract with Kinex to do youth consultations around updating the Regional Homelessness Plan Youth Chapter;
· Supported the involvement of eight youths with experience of homelessness to participate equitably in the decision-making processes of the Youth Working Group of the Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness;
· Supporting City Plan Implementations staff in Victoria/Fraserview/Killarney to engage youths and youth workers in moving forward key action items;
· Worked with VPD Chief's Office to create two youth spots on the Diversity Advisory Committee;
· working with the City's Drug Policy Coordinator to explore how to involve youths in the work of the Prevention Pillar of the City's 4-Pillars Strategy;
· Working with police officers from the School Liaison program and students from the Justice Institute to evaluate the SLO Student Challenge Program;
· Piloting a tool for municipal governments to use that allows City staff and youths themselves to assess how meaningful municipal youth involvement mechanisms are;
· Supporting staff at Tupper Secondary to engage community members in consultations about building safe schools and safe neighbourhoods;
· Provided a report to Corporate Communications and Mayor's Office around engaging youths in public forums;
· Delivered workshops to civic staff on how to meaningfully engage youths through the CityLearn workshop on the Public Involvement Guide;
· Working with the Office of Cultural Affairs and Parks and Recreation on youth involvement in the development of programs that get youths involved in sports, recreation and art for the 2010 Olympic Youth Legacy;
· Wrote a chapter (with support from EYA and UVic) on youth participation in municipal government for a working paper related to Habitat 3.
2. Support youths and youth groups to engage municipal government directly (without the intermediary of a youth worker or Youth Outreach Team member) in order to address issues that are important to them (including profiling youth as a resource)
· Exploring effectiveness of arts-based programming as a means through which to activate youth citizenship at a local level (Neighbourhood Engagement Project - Chinatown/Strathcona video);
· Helped prepare youth for involvement in the City Choices forums organized by the Mayor's Office; held a debriefing with youths who attended the forum
· Provided support to youths involved with Vancouver Police Department Diversity Advisory Committee;
· Supporting youth involvement in planning processes in PNE/Hastings and East Fraserlands Visions as well as Victoria/Fraserview/Killarney;
· Working with VSB teachers to develop an interactive civics curriculum to provide youths with a basic understanding of the municipal system, how it works, and how they can affect change through it;
· Recommending youth/youth groups to sit on City committees and task forces;
· Supported youth involvement in Police Board forum;
· Worked with Partners at Work Student Project Team, to prepare orientation materials and plan events for 140 youths participating in work / job shadowing experiences at civic work-sites;
· Provided financial and staff support to Youth Week 2004 staff in partnership with Vancouver Park Board;
· Provided partial resources for Environmental Youth Alliance to print "Ignite", a publication promoting the work of youth driven organizations;
· Worked with Park Board staff and youths from John Oliver Secondary to curate a City-wide art show at the Roundhouse for Youth Week;
· Engaged youths in five secondary school classes to create art promoting youths as a resource to their communities that will be profiled on bus shelter advertisements in Vancouver in the summer of 2004;
· Supported aboriginal youths to develop video skills and collect the stories of their elders for "Our City Our Voices", a Storyscapes project;
· Held a celebration of youths' involvement in civic issues at City Hall during the Team's website launch;
3. Support community partners to support youths involved in their programs to activate their citizenship through engaging municipal government
· Supported the use of Community Asset Mapping as a youth friendly consultation and neighbourhood assessment technique in one Community Visions process (Collingwood Renfrew), with a range of partners including EYA;
· Supporting youth workers in Victoria/Fraserview/Killarney to engage their youth in the Community Visions Implementations process.
APPENDIX C
YOUTH OUTREACH TEAM - WORKPLAN FOR THE REMAINDER OF 2004
Project |
Role |
1995 CYS Policy |
Build the capacity of city staff to meaningfully involve youth (in consultations, decision making and other projects) |
||
COMMUNITY VISIONS |
Support planning staff to engage youth in neighbourhood planning processes |
PLACE, RESOURCE, VOICE |
YOUTH INVOLVEMENT IN PUBLIC FORUMS |
Provide workshops on meaningful youth involvement in forums to civic and community partners. |
RESOURCE, VOICE |
YOUTH AND CITY COMMITTEES |
Explore ways to support youth appointed to city committees |
RESOURCE, VOICE |
Vancouver School Board
|
Provide a liaison to steering committee to support VSB to develop secondary student engagement plan |
RESOURCE |
Build capacity of youth/youth groups to learn about civic issues and engage municipal government |
||
VANCOUVER DISTRICT STUDENT COUNCIL (VDSC) |
Build a relationship with VDSC members by providing a consistent Youth Outreach Team liaison |
VOICE |
NEIGHBOURHOOD ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM - Chinatown / Strathcona |
Edit and complete youth video on the neighbourhood Support youth to hold a screening Continue to support youth to have voice within the Chinatown Revitalization work |
RESOURCE, VOICE |
NIGHT-CLUB SAFETY |
Link youth group to training opportunities and city staff |
VOICE |
CIVICS EDUCATION |
Involve youth and city staff in developing youth friendly materials on how municipal government works Continue to support implementation of the civics curriculum |
VOICE |
ENGAGING URBAN ABORIGINAL YOUTH |
Build relationships with aboriginal youth and their support base Research how cities are supporting and engaging aboriginal youth |
SUPPORT BASE,
|
PARTNERS AT WORK |
Support youth to plan orientation and events for 140 students participating in municipal work and job shadowing experiences
|
RESOURCE |
RESEARCH |
As opportunities arise work with community partners to deepen our collective knowledge base around such subjects as: · Municipal youth engagement strategies
|
SUPPORT BASE |
Promote positive youth achievements and celebrate the youth community |
||
YOUTH RECOGNITION STRATEGY |
Develop ideas on how to profile the achievements of youth |
RESOURCE |
SPECIAL COUNCIL EVENTS |
Support city staff to include / profile youth during event activities (i.e. linking staff to youth active in work around multiculturalism for the International Day for the Elimination of Racism) |
RESOURCE |
Getting the word out |
||
COMMUNICATIONS |
Keep Civic Youth Strategy (CYS) information up to date on Social Planning and www.vancouveryouth.ca websites Seeking feedback from stakeholders on how to improve the usefulness of the CYS web presence Update list-serves and develop full database of contacts |
RESOURCE, VOICE |
Support Community Partners |
||
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT PROCESS |
Involving stakeholders in the work of the Youth Outreach Team Continue to have a presence in varied youth communities |
RESOURCE, VOICE |
COMMUNITY WORK ON YOUTH CITIZENSHIP |
Explore the role of the Youth Outreach Team in activating youth citizenship in relation to the work of community partners |
VOICE, SUPPORT |
May 2004 Community Feedback on the Work of the Youth Outreach Team
In May, 2004, the City of Vancouver's Youth Outreach Team (YOT) contracted an independent consultant to design and facilitate a series of community feedback sessions to allow various stakeholders to share their thoughts on the work of the Youth Outreach Team since June, 2003, and generate recommendations for future work.
Facilitated sessions were conducted with:
· youths who have worked with the Youth Outreach Team;
· civic staff who have worked with the Youth Outreach Team (or might work with the Team); and
· community partners who have worked with the Youth Outreach Team (or might work with the Team).
In each session, the participants addressed the following question:
"What would you do to make the Youth Outreach Team work better for you, or your group, based on your experiences of the past year?"
Participants identified three areas for improvement for the Team: it needs a clear articulated purpose; it needs to clarify its role and constituency; and it needs to develop ways to measure success, be accountable and transparent. Here are the questions raised under each of the three themes:
1) Purpose:
· What is the purpose of the Youth Outreach Team?
· What is the Youth Outreach Team trying to accomplish?
2) Constituents and Role:
· Who is the primary constituent of the Team?
· What is the relationship between the Team and the range of other actors at the neighbourhood level?
· What services does the Team provide?
3) Accountability:
· How does YOT measure success?
· How do stakeholders continue to be involved?
· What is the relationship between the Team, Social Planning and the Advocate?
· What can be done to improve transparency?
Youth Outreach Team's Proposed Work Related to Community Feedback
The Youth Outreach Team has spent the last two years testing out different tools and strategies to activate youth citizenship and enable meaningful youth participation in municipal decision making. Over this time, the Team has worked on a range of projects with a number of different partners, playing very diverse roles. Some of these roles will continue, while other roles (in hindsight) were not the most effective.
Looking back at the variety of actions and activities the Team has been part of, and the feedback offered during the May 2004 consultations, the Team has attempted to articulate its purpose and to offer ideas on how it can be clearer about its role, constituents, and methods of accountability. Here are their responses:
1) PURPOSE
The primary purpose of the Youth Outreach Team is to increase the meaningful participation of youth in municipal decision-making
2) CONSTITUENTS and ROLE
In pursuit of this purpose, Youth Outreach Team will:
· Support City staff to engage youths meaningfully in consultations and decision-making that are particularly, but not solely, related to "the development, assessment, and delivery of civic services that have a direct impact on youths".
· Support community partners in helping youths in their programs activate youth citizenship through engaging municipal government.
· Support youths and youth groups to engage municipal government directly (without the intermediary of a youth worker or Youth Outreach Team member) in order to address issues that are important to them.
To support City staff, the Team will work to:
· Strengthen the ability of staff to involve youths in consultations and decision-making, and to make civic processes accessible to youths, by providing advice, information/models, training, and/or hands-on support.
· Link civic staff to diverse community partners, youth groups and youths with relevant interests/expertise.
· Develop and implement a staff communications strategy that makes all City staff aware of the Team's existence while clarifying the Team's roles and the services provided.
· Evaluate the impact of the Team's work with staff to measure changes in attitudes and practices.
To support community partners, the Team will work to:
· Clarify the most effective roles for the Youth Outreach Team to play so as to support and not duplicate their work
To support youths, the Team will work to:
· Build relationships with City staff to identify and create opportunities for youths to effectively engage the municipal system.
· Build relationships with front-line staff working with youths from diverse backgrounds in order to promote opportunities for their involvement with City work being done at the neighbourhood level.
· Connect youths (individuals or groups) who are interested in any given municipal issue to the appropriate civic staff or community partner.
· Provide a range of supports to youths and youth groups before, during and after their engagement with the municipal system.
· Convene youths and community partners to address important youth issues that youths indicate they would like to have voice in and/or take action around.
· Develop a communications strategy for youths and people who work with youths to provide information about municipal government and opportunities for involvement.
· Profile positive stories of youth achievement and celebrate youths as a resource to the City of Vancouver.
Several participants in the May 2004 consultation noted that the level of resources the Team has been given, make it difficult to play all of those roles to each of those constituents. They recommended that the Team either prioritize a constituent and specialize in its roles, or ask for more resources. The Team will continue to explore how to equitably allocate resources between the different constituents. To date, the bulk of time has been spent supporting City staff to engage youths in their work rather than mobilizing youths to engage with City staff.
3) ACCOUNTABILITY
The Team will explore the development of a mechanism for City/Community groups to provide stewardship to the Youth Outreach Team's work. The participants of all three sessions clearly articulated an interest in revisiting such mechanisms.
Over the next twelve months, the Team will explore the following actions to address these concerns:
· Creating some form of a staff and youth community advisory group that can inform the work of the Team.
· Developing a more effective communications strategy that makes better use of the web-site and the list-serve system.
· Designing and implementing an evaluation of the Team's work involving youths, youth-driven/youth-serving community, and staff.