Mason

Northwest Territories

Issue: The lack of youth voice
Why? It is a large community issue

What issue did you choose to address in your Action Plan?

The lack of youth voice.

Why did you choose that issue?

It is a large community issue.

How are you going to address the selected issue?

We planned on combating this by creating an interactive Face book page. The page would contain items such as open wall for youth comments, A 24 hour suicide intervention line, activity request page that allowed youth to identify interests and a suggestion box and any other topic the youth identify on the page. This would also have a weekly draw section that would keep youth visiting the site.

This was a topic chosen by Mason and myself while at the workshop and is one we feel could help get important messages to many youth in a short period of time. It also allows shy youth to speak freely to adults that normally would not.

What do you hope to achieve in the next year?

We hope to have to page up and running by the end of the school year.

What progress have you made so far?

To date Mason Bruneau and myself have spoken to the 4 potential schools and asked that they identify 4 candidates that would be interested in helping maintain or upgrade a Facebook page. The schools and youth spoken seem to be in favor of the page and youth have approached and offered to help. I have approached a community group that is interested in funding our page and also offered to help with it. We have spoken to a computer tech that will also help with any technical issues that may arise. He has also said he can promote the page with his high school computer classes. We are looking forward to moving onto the next phase of the page which is the actual creation of the page.