Taking A Look at the Younger Generation in Vaughan

City's report calls for more youth involvement in government

This past week Vaughan’s Youth Councillor Steven Xu delivered his State of the Youth Report to City Council highlighting a need for more youth involvement in government affairs.
The report examined several key issues in the City of Vaughan from a point of view that often gets dismissed, the youth perspective. Each issue is broken down into three categories: background information and support, analysis and opinions and the action plan.
The Youth City Councillor works and communicates actively with student officials in the secondary school system. The first Youth Councillor, Mark Anthony Friscoli, conducted visits to five Vaughan secondary schools: Vaughan SS, Maple HS, Emily Carr SS, Woodbridge College, and Father Bressani CHS and the second Youth City Councillor, Steven Xu revisited Vaughan SS and Maple HS and also met with the students of Westmount CI, Stephen Lewis SS, St. Elizabeth CHS, St. Jean de Brebeuf CHS, and established productive correspondence with Thornhill SS.
Steven Xu delivered lectures ranging from 40 minutes to 75 minutes covering a variety of themes: civic engagement, civic responsibility, current municipal projects and developments, recreational/cultural/employment/volunteer/ activism opportunities, the structure of municipal government, the municipal decision-making process, and the position of the Youth City Councillor itself.
A voluntary Secondary Needs Assessment Survey was distributed among and collected from students during the periods and information gathered included asking students whether they would be willing to purchase an annual youth membership and whether and when students would like to see new programming within their schools. By participating in services such as pubic transit, recreational facilities, libraries, cultural facilities, and schools, the Youth City Councillor can provide an otherwise silent perspective.
In his report, Xu emphasized that having youth step up not only improves the quality of life for young people now but also builds upon the existing infrastructure to prepare for a more prosperous future.
Xu also discussed the Youth Feedback Initiative, wherein the goal would be for each secondary school to have one student representative to act as a key liaison between the students and the City, reporting to the Vaughan Youth City Councillor and the Vaughan Youth Cabinet. The intramural liaison is a crucial step in increasing the communication efforts between the City and the students.

Publication Date: 2007-06-24
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=7429