Emily

British Columbia

Issue: Gangs
Why? We live in the #1 crime city in Canada and it definitely has an impact on many teens.

Updated: 2011-07-11

Since my last update, we’ve made some progress. Cpl. Hornoi and myself had a meeting with some people who are interested in participating in this project.

An individual from my community, who has grown up in a gang situation, is willing to present sometime in the school year not only at my school, but other schools across our community as well.

The Coordinator for CASEY (Communities Against Sexually Exploited Youth), a program within Central Interior Native Health wants to help. She is also the director of New Generations for the Nechako Rotary Club which oversees all of their youth programs. Another very good partnership!

When school starts up again, I’m going to be talking to a few of my previous teachers, as well as all the planning teachers, asking them to help me. I’m also going to be talking to a few of my peers to see if they’d be interested in participating in my project. My mother might be able to help out as well.

Updated: 2011-05-01

What issue did you choose to address in your Action Plan? The issue I chose to address in my action plan was to prevent youth at my school from getting involved in gangs. This includes things like drugs, alcohol, prostitution and all the lovely things that come with that.

Why did you choose that issue? I chose this issue because not only are we the number one crime city in Canada, but it also seems to affect teens in high school. I look around in school, and I can already pick off some of the kids that are involved; there must be more than what the eye can see.

How are you going to address the selected issue? I’m going to address this issue by getting a guest speaker to come in and talk to kids about his or her story, and then have some sort of competition. The competition could be something like a poster contest or a writing contest. It could even be both, but I’m still not quite sure yet. At my school specifically, I hope to have some sort of movie night where kids come in every Friday just to hang out and watch something cool. This night could give people the chance to have that sense of belonging.

What do you hope to achieve in the next year?In the next year, I hope to have plenty of kids coming to the movie night, and to have that competition and guest speaker done before Christmas. Where I go from there is still a mystery… but I will figure it out.

What progress have you made so far? So far, we have talked about possible speakers that have experience in the gang lifestyle one way or another. We’ve also talked about having a prize for the winner of the contest, and the prize shall remain unknown for now. Also, we have discussed people who can help with fundraising to have these activities occur.