'Youth are experts': Manitoba children's advocate gets input from young people
CBC
Early signs of spring and a pot full of chili greet several young people as they make their way into a boardroom in downtown Winnipeg one recent Tuesday evening.
The eight come from various backgrounds. Some are from Manitoba First Nations communities. Some are from the city. Some are in high school. Others are navigating the new freedom that comes with adulthood.
They would not have been likely to meet had past circumstances not brought them together. It's a desire to push and create change for youth that keeps them connected.
Several years ago, the office of Manitoba's children and youth advocate was looking to attract youth to actively participate in its work.
In 2018, the Youth Ambassador Advisory Squad was formed. It consists of three staff from the office and roughly a dozen young people. They meet biweekly in person and, during the pandemic, online.
The advocate's office walks the talk, says Cleche Kokolo, 21, of Winnipeg.
"The role of youth in [the squad] is not tokenistic."
"Youth are experts, especially in their own lives. That expertise is just as valuable as an adult with years of education in a specific field," she adds.
"That's key if we're really going to try and change society and envision a world that's better than the world we currently have."
The squad was inspired by what other provincial children's advocates were doing with similar groups, says acting Manitoba advocate Ainsley Krone. The office was told to "just start it" with input from youth on what was meaningful for them.
Krone says the goal was to develop something beyond an advisory group.
"We wanted to empower these young people to become ambassadors for the office throughout the province."
What has developed is a relationship in which squad members help guide the work of the advocate, while the office provides training and cultural activities that interest the group.
Meetings start with people rating their day and sharing something for which they are grateful. It's a simple gesture but is the foundation of what the meetings are meant to offer — a safe and welcoming space.
More Alberta seniors are now eligible for a provincially funded RSV vaccine.
More than 100 workers at a steel plant in eastern Ontario are being laid off either temporarily or permanently, as a company with facilities in Quebec and Ontario cuts its workforce due to challenging market conditions — including U.S. tariffs.
A small town northwest of Thunder Bay, Ont., has become the unlikely home for hundreds of foreign workers, but many may have to leave the community they've embraced after the end of a federal program put in place to fill gaps in Canada's labour market.
There's mixed reaction in Waterloo to an injuction allowing police to detain, arrest and charge anyone who is participating in unsanctioned street parties in that city this weekend.
Diabetes Canada is excited about Prince Edward Island's new pharmacare deal with the federal government, but hopes the province will reevaluate copays on diabetes supplies, says a senior manager with the organization.
After 26 years of accommodating guests from across the world, Faith Embleton says she and her husband Ken are ready to sell their bed and breakfast.
A group of big-name companies including Google, Meta and Dow have signed a pledge to support tripling the world's nuclear energy capacity by 2050, a signal of the technology's growing resurgence in popularity.
Five years on, Toronto-area doctors and public health officials are looking back at what they've learned since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and most agree the early experience will prove useful if the city faces another infectious disease crisis.
City staff would like Londoners to take a good look around their home and ask themselves a direct and possibly difficult question: Could everyone in your family survive at home, without leaving and with no other help, for a full 72 hours?
Liberal Leader Mark Carney will officially become Canada's next prime minister within a few hours, taking the reins as the country barrels toward a general election and continues to fend off verbal and economic attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Recent cyberattacks in Newfoundland and Labrador should have been a wake up call for the federal government about the reality of an increasingly hostile world, says one cybersecurity expert.
A recent CBC News analysis found that Nova Scotia is rapidly losing some of its most affordable apartments, but housing experts say there are ways to prevent that.
Premier Susan Holt is defending her decision to not use electricity exports to Maine as leverage against U.S. tariffs, arguing the move might cause long-term pain for New Brunswickers.