Appendix 2: Opportunities for West Shore-Sooke Municipalities to Collaborate to Improve Youth Well-Being

Collaborative Stages for Advancing Youth Well-Being

West Shore–Sooke municipalities can collaborate at multiple stages—engagement, planning, policy and program development, funding, implementation, and evaluation—to more effectively support youth well-being across the region, in collaboration with community partners. At each stage, there are opportunities to improve efficiency, reduce duplication, and scale up successful initiatives that are already making a difference in individual communities.

• Engagement: Municipalities can jointly engage youth, families, and service providers to understand lived experiences, identify barriers, and co-develop priorities. Shared engagement processes can ensure youth voices are heard consistently across jurisdictions.
• Planning: Collaborative planning allows municipalities to align goals, coordinate timelines, and integrate youth well-being into broader strategies such as transportation, housing, and recreation.
• Policy and Program Development: Municipalities can co-design policies and programs that reflect shared values and regional needs, while leveraging existing models that are already working well in one community.
• Funding: Joint funding applications and pooled resources can unlock larger investments, reduce administrative burden, and support long-term sustainability of youth-focused initiatives.
• Implementation: Coordinated delivery of services and infrastructure—such as transit, trails, or youth programming—can ensure consistency, expand reach, and maximize impact across municipal boundaries.
• Evaluation: Municipalities can share data, track outcomes, and learn from each other’s successes and challenges. A regional approach to evaluation supports continuous improvement and accountability.

By collaborating across these stages, municipalities can build a more cohesive and responsive system that promotes youth well-being and ensures that young people have access to safe, supportive environments in which to thrive.

Specific Opportunities for Collaboration Within Municipal Focus Areas

This section outlines specific opportunities for collaboration to improve youth well-being in the West Shore-Sooke region. These opportunities are organized into key municipal focus areas—transportation, employment, civic engagement, access to youth-friendly spaces, physical activity and recreation, and arts and culture.

These ideas emerged from a preliminary review of existing municipal plans and programs in Colwood, Langford, Sooke, Highlands, Metchosin, the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area, and View Royal. They are intended as a starting point and a resource to support ongoing dialogue and shared exploration among members of the Municipal Leaders Advisory Team (MLAT). Prioritization of these opportunities could be guided by meaningful engagement with West Shore–Sooke youth, as well as input from local community organizations and Island Health’s Population and Public Health team.

Active and Public Transportation

West Shore-Sooke youth have asked for improved transit networks across the Region to increase access to key services, schools, and employment opportunities.²⁵ This youth-identified need is well-aligned with the efforts of West Shore-Sooke municipalities to enhance transit, reduce congestion, and promote active transportation.³⁴,³⁵,⁵²–⁵⁶ Through joint planning, West Shore-Sooke municipalities can ensure safe, youth-friendly connectivity exists both within and between municipalities.

Municipalities can collaborate to engage youth directly in identifying transportation barriers, which may include frequency of service, safety, transit stop locations, or other concerns. With support from The Village Initiative and its network of youth-serving organizations, municipalities can better understand where and when youth are traveling, and what infrastructure or services are needed to support them.

Building on this engagement, West Shore-Sooke municipalities can work together to align land use plans to ensure that trails, bike lanes, and sidewalks are safe, accessible, and connected across municipal boundaries—especially to key destinations such as schools, recreation centers, and employment hubs.

The MLAT could also expand access to existing transportation initiatives, such as Capital Bike’s “Everyone Rides” and “Ride the Road” program.⁵⁷ These programs help equip youth with the skills to travel on a bicycle safely and confidently. They are currently offered in some but not all West Shore–Sooke elementary and middle schools.

Finally, the MLAT can play a key role in elevating regional youth transit priorities, ensuring they are reflected in broader planning and advocacy efforts at the Capital Regional District and provincial levels.

Employment Opportunities

Youth in the South Island are experiencing declining levels of hope for their future.¹ Providing employment opportunities that allow youth to develop skills and discover potential career paths may help to improve hope in this population.⁵⁸

West Shore–Sooke municipalities can begin by identifying shared goals for youth employment and aligning them with broader economic development strategies. For example, Metchosin’s focus on agriculture⁵⁹, View Royal’s support for heritage tourism⁶⁰, and Sooke’s interest in attracting low carbon resilient businesses⁶¹ represent diverse opportunities that, when coordinated, can offer youth a wide range of career pathways across the region.

Building on this shared vision, municipalities can collaborate to develop policies and programs that support youth employment. This could include creating a West Shore/Sooke Youth and Young Adult Employment Hub in partnership with the Westshore WorkBC Centre. The hub would centralize job postings, internships, and training opportunities for youth, post-secondary students, and new graduates, making it easier for young people to access meaningful work experiences in the West Shore-Sooke region.

To support these initiatives, municipalities and partners could pool resources and pursue joint funding applications—such as federal or provincial grants—to expand successful programs like the START Youth Employment and Skills Strategy Program, delivered by the WorkLink Employment Society.⁶²

Civic Engagement, Volunteerism, & Leadership

The BC Healthy Communities Child and Youth Mental Well-Being Resource Guide identifies participation in community as a key contributor to youth well-being.²⁶ Benefits of meaningful participation include a stronger sense of belonging, increased sense of independence and responsibility, enhanced self-esteem, deeper social connections with peers and adults, and a greater sense of purpose and hope for the future.⁶³ Participation can take many forms, such as involvement in planning and governance, volunteering with local organizations, and developing leadership skills.

Promising initiatives already underway—such as Sooke’s Youth Advisory Committee²⁸ and/or the Youth Advisory Circle that has been established to support our local Foundry—could be scaled and adapted across the region to strengthen youth participation in civic life. For example, a regional Youth Advisory Council could be established, giving youth from all West Shore–Sooke communities a direct platform to contribute to MLAT initiatives and municipal decision-making. This would help ensure that youth voices are consistently reflected in regional planning and policy development.

In addition, municipalities and partners could collaborate on the creation of a Youth Volunteer Hub—a centralized resource that captures and shares volunteer opportunities across the region. This hub could support youth in finding meaningful ways to get involved, while also helping municipalities and community organizations engage young people more effectively.

Safe, Accessible, and Inclusive Places

West Shore-Sooke youth have expressed a desire for increased access to safe, inclusive, and welcoming spaces where they can connect with peers and adult mentors.²⁵ Physical spaces play a foundational role in fostering these connections, which are critical to youth well-being.¹⁴,¹⁵,¹⁸,¹⁹,⁶⁴,⁶⁵

Regional planning can help identify optimal locations for new youth spaces and opportunities to enhance existing ones. Equity mapping could be conducted to prioritize development in areas with limited program offerings or higher proportions of families facing systematic barriers (e.g., low income households, newcomers).

Pooling resources across municipalities and partner organizations can strengthen applications for federal and provincial grants to support new space projects. For example, joint efforts could help fund the replacement of the Sooke skatepark or upgrades to existing youth facilities.

The use of existing facilities—such as the Hangout Room in Sooke, After School Drop-In at Emery Hall in Colwood, and The Shore at the Juan de Fuca Recreation Centre—could also be expanded by coordinating hours of access and supporting shared programming across sites.

Physical Activity and Recreation

Data from the Adolescent Health Survey indicates that most youth (81%) in the West Shore-Sooke region are not meeting the Canadian guidelines for engagement in physical activity, which recommends an hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity for youth aged 12-17 years old every day.¹ Physical activity has a range of benefits for youth, including improved physical and psychological well-being.⁶⁶–⁶⁸

The MLAT could support collaboration between West Shore Parks & Recreation and the Sooke and Electoral Areas Parks and Recreation Commission (SEAPARC) and other partners to coordinate access to youth recreation opportunities across the region. Planning efforts could include the development of a joint calendar of recreational programs offered by West Shore Parks & Recreation, SEAPARC, and local community groups to improve awareness and access.

West Shore-Sooke municipalities could work together to establish a discounted regional youth recreation pass, building on existing programs such as the regional recreation pass and the L.I.F.E. pass.⁶⁹ This would allow youth to access facilities across the region more easily, and could positively benefit youth that are experiencing economic disadvantages.

Providing safe and accessible active transportation routes (e.g., bike lanes, sidewalks) between municipalities is another way to encourage physical activity and improve access to recreation.

Finally, the MLAT could support initiatives such as “Play Streets”⁷⁰, which temporarily closes streets that are not major transportation routes to allow kids to play. This is a way to encourage physical activity and play for children that may not be able to access formal recreational opportunities.

Arts & Culture

Arts & culture activities offer valuable opportunities to engage youth in meaningful ways. These types of activities may be particularly impactful for youth from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds.⁷¹ Promoting arts & culture has been identified as a priority by many West Shore-Sooke municipalities.³⁰–³³,⁷²

West Shore-Sooke municipalities could work together to identify regional space and programming needs for youth that are interested in arts and culture activities. The MLAT could also support collaboration among local organizations—such as the West Shore Arts Council, the Juan de Fuca Performing Arts Centre Society, the Metchosin Arts & Cultural Centre Association, and the Sooke Arts Council—to co-develop youth-focused arts programming. Existing festivals, such as the Sooke Music Festival and Colwood’s Lagoon Arts & Culture Festival, could be expanded to include more youth-friendly components.

Finally, the MLAT could help advocate for funding to support youth arts initiatives, including a new theatre in the West Shore, leveraging the CRD’s recently proposed regional theatre funding model.⁷³

Conclusion

There are many opportunities for West Shore–Sooke municipalities to work together to support youth well-being. These opportunities span key municipal focus areas such as transportation, employment, civic engagement, youth-friendly spaces, physical activity and recreation, and arts and culture.

This document is intended to assist with initial idea generation and may also serve as a resource for future conversations. By collaborating, municipalities, in collaboration with community partners, can increase efficiency and scale up what already works—leveraging shared resources, knowledge, and successful models to create a stronger, more coordinated regional impact.

Authors

This appendix was authored by: Raquel Burgess, MSc PhD Community Health Promoter, Capital Region, Island Health Population & Public Health (PPH) Team

With input from: Sorcha Collins, MSc PhD, Senior Policy Lead, Healthy Public Policy and Strategy, Island Health PPH Team Matthew McLean, Healthy Communities Coordinator, Island Health PPH Team Jana Cranch, Environmental Public Health Consultant, Island Health PPH Team Neil Arason, Injury Prevention Specialist, South Island, Island Health PPH Team