YORKTON - Yorkton Council took a more detailed look at the idea of a Youth Advisory Committee Report at its Committee-of-the-Whole meeting Monday.
The request that the city investigate such a committee was made at the Aug. 19 regular Council meeting by Councillor Dustin Brears.
The report Monday was fashioned mainly based on the model currently employed by the City of Moose Jaw.
The Moose Jaw Youth Advisory Committee, the Committee meets once per month, or at the call of the Chair, throughout the school term from September to June annually, detailed a report to Council circulated Monday. The Committee is made up of 19 voting members, one member of City Council, two student representatives each from four high schools, two K-12 schools, and Sask Polytechnic.
Committee terms are one year in length, and are appointed by City Council. The Committee then elects their own Chair and Vice-Chair for the term.
The report also noted; Administration also reached out to the City of Moose Jaw’s Department of Legislative and Enforcement Services regarding their Youth Advisory Committee and learned the following:
* The Committee is used as a “two-way” street for programs, projects, and initiatives. Administration and Council provides project ideas to the Committee for review and feedback, and the Committee provides project ideas to Administration and Council for consideration.
* The Committee reviews and provides input on various City-wide programs and initiatives, such as recycling programs, and shared a youth centric view point.
* Committee members must be between the ages of 16 and 25 to participate, and therefore there are no members representing younger youth, elementary schools, etc.
It was also part of the report to touch upon the current Youth Resiliency Project.
“In 2022 the Recreation & Community Services Department partnered with the Society for the Involvement of Good Neighbours (SIGN) to implement the Youth Resiliency Project. This partnership was fully funded by SIGN, who had received grant funding from the Morris Foundation. Using the Developmental Asset Framework, this project works directly with the community’s youth to identify and assess the strengths and supports (the Developmental Assets) that young people experience in their lives,” it stated.
“The Developmental Assets framework is a research-based approach for understanding the strengths and supports that young people need in their lives to prepare for a positive, productive future. Extensive research has shown that having these assets in their lives helps young people make positive life choices, affecting their growth as they move through childhood and adolescence and into adulthood.”
Given the alignment of the Moose Jaw model and the existing Youth Resiliency Project, Council may wish to utilize the Resiliency Project in place of a formal advisory committee. Alternatively, a separate Youth Advisory Committee could be formed, utilizing members of the Youth Resiliency Project, or filled by the standard open application process used by other Council Committees, suggested the report.
To allow for a direct connection between the Youth Resiliency Project and City Council, the following can be incorporated into the Youth Resiliency Project moving forward and starting this school year:
* Provide a mechanism for Council to refer items to the Youth Resiliency Project through the Recreation & Community Services department. These items would be brought forward to the regular Alliance of Asset Champions meetings which are held every two months for input and feedback from the youth involved in the project.
* A summary of the regular Alliance of Asset Champions meeting, including action items and feedback on referred items will then be shared with back to City Council.
* Review options to allow members of the Youth Resiliency Project to periodically attend Council meetings and present to Council on specific items, progress reports, etc.
* Extend an invitation to City Council to attend the Alliance of Asset Champion meetings.
The formation of a new Youth Advisory Committee would include some additional costs to the overall Council Committee budget.
In the end Council supported the recommendation that the Committee of the Whole Council recommend to Council to endorse the Youth Resiliency Project (YRP), as the mechanism that Council uses for feedback from this demographic, allocate $5,000 annually to future budgets for continuance of support for the YRP, and further, encourage youth within the community of Yorkton to become engaged with the project through their respective schools, extra-curricular programs, and recreation/youth based activities.
