After a delicious breakfast, and even more coffee and snacks at our main room, we finally got down to business, first with the setting of Community Standards by the Halifax Regional Municipality. What an insightful & innovative way to create a set of rules, not made by adults for youth to break, but made my youth for us to respect each other in a nurturing environment.
This was followed by a brief schematic of YouthScape history on a national level. Afterwards, each chapter was asked to chart their own journey, with the metaphor of a river; fish being positive influences, rocks being obstacles, and splashes being little encouragements. Calgary’s river was in the shape of a circle, where we felt we were currently right back where we started, but we are en route to go upstream, working hard to empower marginalized youth, as soon as “we figure out who to empower, and how”.
