The InvolveYouth project is a new City of Toronto venture to get Toronto’s 300,000 young people involved in community based decision-making. Using an advertising campaign targeted at organizations thinking about incorporating youth into their power structure, the city hopes that young people aged 14-24 will get involved and enrich city life. “The City wants to encourage all organizations, whether they be cultural or political, to involve young people in the most meaningful way,” says Olivia Chow, the Toronto City Councilor for Trinity-Spadina and the City of Toronto’s Child and Youth Advocate. Chow feels there should be space for youth on all community based decision-making bodies, regardless if they serve youth as a part of their mandate.
The idea for the program, which was unveiled by Mayor David Miller at a press conference last Wednesday, originated from the Toronto Youth Cabinet, a group started during Mel Lastman’s tenure as mayor. The Youth Cabinet’s role in municipal politics is to keep tabs on any city business that might affect young people. Focus groups conducted by the Youth Cabinet brought the InvolveYouth campaign to fruition. “It’s an attempt to promote awareness among large corporations and community based organizations in Toronto that youth have something to offer, and that youth can help their organization as much as they can help the youth,” says Mike Foderick, an assistant to councilor Cesar Palacio and a former U of T student.
Foderick cites Downtown Legal Services at U of T as an example of an organization that could bring youth into its fold. “It would be a benefit to have a young person on their board of directors,” says Foderick.The InvolveYouth project is funded entirely through the Ontario Works Incentive program-a Tory government initiative that sets workfare targets for municipalities. Transfer payments are given to jurisdictions that meet or exceed their targets. The municipalities can then use the funds however they see fit. The City of Toronto, which attained its goal of getting a requisite number of people off welfare and onto workfare, chose to fund the InvolveYouth project. While Councilor Chow disagrees with workfare, she said she is “not going to turn down money.”
The InvolveYouth program itself will cost $250,000. The advertising campaign, which will appear in more than 5,000 TTC vehicles and shelters over the next four weeks, makes up $175,000 of this total. The additional $75,000 covers the advertising design, the focus groups, and several workshops that will follow the campaign. These workshops will aid organizations attempting to integrate youth, and are being run through the Laidlaw foundation, a Toronto area non-profit organization, on behalf of the City.
As for the goals of the program, Chow believes she will see innovative ideas coming from organizations that make a commitment to youth. “Once you invite young people to participate, they will exceed beyond your expectations.”
