Youth Matters Report

Pacific Centre Family Services Association Youth Engagement Groups – Summary

The Youth Engagement Groups (YEG) ran from November 2012 to February 2013 with eight sessions scheduled and five sessions held. The topics for the five sessions included:

• Review of Pacific Centre Family Services (website and the Wale Road youth space)
• Youth Arts in the Westshore
• Colwood Community Mapping with the United Way
• Access to Online Services for Youth
• Community Services for Youth

The discussion questions for each of these sessions were in collaboration with community partners including Moyer Creative Group, The United Way, Need2, Your Westshore Literacy Connection and the Social Planning Council. The facilitators were a youth counsellor, a volunteer and a practicum student. The program was supported by funding from PCFSA and the Family Court Youth Justice Committee.

The topics planned for the cancelled sessions were Youth Voice in Local Government as well as a field trip to Pearson College. The sessions were cancelled because there were no participants (two sessions) and because the facilitators were not able to attend (one session).

The number of participants ranged from one to four, with two sessions run with a single participant and two returning participants coming to the majority of the sessions. All four participants lived in the Westshore, three attended school in the Westshore (the other attended school in another district) and their ages ranged from 14 – 17 years old.

The advertising was done through posters being placed in schools and community locations as well as distributed through email lists to community partners. Calls and emails were also sent to school counsellors and other youth programmers in the community. PCFSA provided snacks for each session, door prizes donated from local businesses (including Extreme, Curious Comics, Purdy’s Chocolates and Westshore Parks and Recreation) and Certificates of Appreciation for two hours of community service. Both Belmont and Westshore Secondary schools approved these certificates to be used towards students’ required volunteer hours for graduation. Three of the four participants found out about the YEG through other PCFSA programs and one participant heard about it from a community partner.

In liaising with community partners who have also tried to run youth focus groups, suggestions for better attendance include ‘taking the groups to the youth’ by holding the sessions in schools, malls or other locations where youth congregate. It was also suggested that the facilitators work in collaboration with the Leadership course run at Belmont Secondary or the other graduation preparation courses (such as Planning 10 and Graduation Transitions) where volunteer hours are required for course completion. A suggestion from another community organization running youth groups was to rename the groups ‘social cafes’ that follow a world café format. The youth participants felt that having a PCFSA youth-specific website and/or Facebook page would help the organization connect with youth and be more effective in reaching potential participants. One facilitator thought that perhaps her ‘advertising’ emails were not being received as they were sent from a personal email account and suggested that, in the future, the youth counsellor (who has connections with the school counsellors and other youth programmers in the community) try sending out the emails for a better response.

From the evaluation forms completed by the participants (received from four different youth), the youth were asked what they liked about the session and what could be improved. One youth stated that ‘it was very open, wonderful to have people asking for youth’s opinion’ but that there could be ‘more advertisement for more people’. Other responses to what was liked included ‘everything - talking about youth’ and ‘we got to talk about lots of stuff and good snack choice’ with no other suggestions for improvement. All four said that they would recommend the YEG to a friend.

The feedback from the youth about the Youth Space at Wale Road included that it was a nice space but was somewhat congested as it has been used as a storage space (this has since been re-organized). The youth participant suggested the space be used to host free ‘youth drop-in groups’ either after school or later in the evening and/or utilizing the space to host a weekly ‘homework club’. The participant also thought that a ‘Youth Club’ could be hosted in the youth space where youth pay minimal monthly fees to engage in planned activities at Wale Road (such as movie nights, cooking projects and board game nights) as well as field trips/activities in the community. Regarding the PCFSA website, the participant suggested including more pictures and youth-friendly ‘icons’ for easier navigation to youth programs. The youth also felt that there should be a separate PCFSA youth Facebook page that included an activities calendar and updates with ongoing programs/groups for youth. The participants felt strongly that the design process of either a PCFSA youth-specific website or Facebook page should include consultation with youth.

The participants felt that there was a shortage of youth-friendly activities in the Westshore and that ‘youth culture’ in the Westshore was disconnected. It was identified that there was a need for positive opportunities that allowed youth to feel challenged and valued in their community. Furthermore, the participants felt the youth needed a place to go in the Westshore because there were not many opportunities for youth to make connections with each other outside of school.

This was emphasized in the second session on Youth Art in the Westshore where the participants strongly supported the development of youth spaces/programs in the proposed Emily Carr Westshore Arts Centre. Most of the art-related activities the participants were currently involved in were through the school system and several barriers to participating in community-based arts were identified, including the cost, lack of options and, where spaces did exist, an ‘anti-youth bias’ was felt (for instance, one participant shared her experience being the only youth in an adult class or when art courses specified 18+ without offering equivalent youth options). It was concluded that the youth would like community arts programs to have youth-specific programming and the participants liked the idea of blending ages together across youth for mentorship opportunities. One participant felt that it was also important to keep the option open for youth to participate in adult courses, which would allow for learning and mentorship opportunities. The participants listed several benefits of having access to youth community arts programming including:

• Opportunities for learning that are different from learning in school and allowed for youth to follow their interests and experiment
• Provides an outlet for anxiety and other mental health issues
• Provides space/opportunity that can help keep youth out of trouble
• Provides an opportunity for personal expression and the expression of feelings
• Helps guide future plans (for instance, post secondary and career goals)
• Builds a sense of community by creating and learning together that allows for the recognition of genuine wealth in the community
• Artistic skills are often transferable to life-skills such as problem solving, patience and confidence

The participants shared ideas for attracting youth to use the proposed Emily Carr Westshore Arts Centre including having a place to showcase their work as well as the opportunity to receive feedback on their work from artists in the community. Another idea was put forward to have culinary art space that youth could access and to have cooking competitions that were judged by instructors/chefs in the community. There was general agreement that youth would like to have access to a culinary arts program (perhaps through the restaurant and catering at the centre) that would provide youth with work experience. Overall, it was agreed that youth would like the opportunity to demonstrate their skills and receive feedback from the community as well as the opportunity to have ‘guest speakers’ come speak to the youth to provide further learning and share experiential knowledge.

The United Way co-facilitated a community mapping session for Colwood specifically; however the discussion included Langford and some mention of Metchosin and View Royal. The participant was asked what she thought made the community great and what, if anything, did she wish there was more of. The participant mentioned “the people and PCFSA” as positives in the community as well as that she felt safe in the Westshore and that it had ample green space. In referring to PCFSA, the youth wished “that there were more groups to attend” and, about the community in general, that there were more opportunities for youth to participate in art programs. The youth also identified that she wished there was a youth-only library and described the Goldstream library as a youth-friendly place. This initiated a discussion about having more youth friendly ‘hang-out’ spaces available (for instance, coffee shops that were open in the evenings and live music venues that support youth musicians playing in the community).

The feedback regarding the YouthSpace website (youthspace.ca) was overall very positive, where they felt it was easy to navigate and contained useful information. Both participants heard about the website through their school counsellors and knew of other youth who accessed the site, leading them to believe that it was ‘somewhat to relatively’ well known. One participant stated that she would not use the email-counselling feature as her mom checks her email and the other participant said he would prefer the instant messaging feature to receive an immediate response rather than waiting for an email. One participant felt that she would prefer a face-to-face community resource where a counsellor could come meet a youth in crisis out in the community rather than the instant messaging or email counselling features. The games and tool kits were rated favorably by the participants, however both participants pointed out that reading may not help youth take their mind of their problems and that it was not accessible for youth who struggled with literacy skills. The participants brought up several concerns they had with Youth Space and email counselling in general. The participants were concerned about their emails/messages being confidential on the Internet, which is a potential barrier for youth accessing these services. One participant questioned why the instant messaging service was only open from 6 to 11 pm (both of these concerns were addressed by the facilitators). Finally, the participants felt that there should be ‘emoticons’ on the Youth Space website as it is “easy to be misunderstood online”. Overall however, Youth Space received a very positive review from the participants and both participants felt that there were adequate online services available to youth.

The idea of video counselling received mixed reviews, one participant felt that he would like the ‘real-time’ aspect of video counselling however the other participant was said that she would not be comfortable using this service. The participants also pointed out that some youth do not have a computer or cannot access a computer that they can use in a private space as barriers to using video-counselling.

The participants listed several qualities/outcomes they were looking for when working with a youth counsellor (either online or in person) including:

• Tips/strategies for coping
• Possible ideas for problem solving
• Not changing the subject (focusing on the problems identified by the youth)
• Want to feel heard
• Not offensive (being aware of tone)
• Honest, truthful and accurate information

In regards to what made community services work for youth, the participants identified:

• Free stuff (i.e. condoms, food)
• Free resources and help (i.e. help finding employment, resume writing etc.)
• People to talk to who are genuinely listening to youth
• Youth friendly environment
• Being clear about what services are offered and what are not
• Timeliness
• Providing the option to make appointments (rather than only drop-in services)
• Providing other ways to access the information or receive support (i.e. online, by phone or by email)

When asked what their favourite community services were, one participant answered the Girls’ Group at PCFSA and the other participant felt his school was his preferred community service because it has “everything you need: teachers, friends and resources if you want them”. The participants heard about community services for youth through counsellors, friends, school and online. Both participants could recall a time where they needed support and could not get it either because they could not find what they were looking for or they were too timid to get help even when they knew it was available. The participants disagreed about what would be a ‘perfect model of community services’ as one participant felt that all youth services should be under one roof and the other participant thought otherwise. One participant felt that this would be beneficial and would like to have training opportunities, job-seeking help, financial services, sexual health, a youth medical clinic, counselling services and workshop opportunities accessible in one building. This participant did not think that youth would feel stigmatized accessing certain services in a shared youth-service building. It was not clarified as to why the other participant disagreed with this ‘all under one roof’ model.

The participants felt favourably towards being offered a financial literacy course for youth in the community (provided it was free of charge) and were especially interested in learning about credit cards, budgeting and saving.

The participants suggested the following ideas for youth focused projects in the Westshore:

• Youth community art projects
• Youth community garden
• Culinary arts programs for youth
• Charitable involvement organized by youth (example was gathering donations to send abroad through Free the Children)

When asked to envision a healthy youth culture, the participants felt that people needed to be included in positive groups that benefited society in some way while gaining a sense of belonging. The participants also stated that it was important for youth to have a place to go which would help to build relationships and foster a sense of community. One participant identified that a positive youth culture also needed to promote “confidence in each other, because we don’t have confidence in our generation.” Feeling valued by the community was agreed as important to the formation of a positive youth culture that in turn would help strengthen the community.

Liz Overton February 21, 2013