SC conference adult program

The Students Commission Conference with the
Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement

Program Objective: The purpose is to provide adults working with youth the opportunity to explore and reflect upon their own participation, and other adult participation in a youth engagement conference in order to become better allies to youth.

Throughout the conference, we provide you with:
1 The latest in research
2 Examples of effective practices
3 Practical tips
4 Reflection and debriefing on what is being observed
5 Respect and interest in your expertise, a safe environment for professional development co-existing with youth development
6 Fun

We would like you to provide:
1 Respect and trust for our process and methods
2 Willingness to move outside your comfort zone (Stacy's Matrix)
3 Full participation as a delegate in the program, observing all the same expectations that we have for all delegates and conference staff, regardless of age
4 We assume the duties of "chaperone" and supervision for your youth while they are here, but we consult you on any major issues that arise
5 We ask that you assume the role of "adult" ally to all youth attending and focus upon support

ADULT WORKSHOP SESSIONS

Defining Roles, Rights, and Responsibilities
* Reflection: What brought you here? What has been your experience with youth engagement? Who am I? Why am I doing this work? Are your reasons for being here supported by your organization?
* Understanding a youth "working" conference. (Their energy surpasses ours.) What role do you play? The importance and power of labels: chaperone, delegate, adult ally.
* 4-Pillars (Respect, Listen, Understand, Communicate) Do we (the adults) need to role model this? Are the 4 Pillars reflected in your organization? Are there others we should add?

Introduction to Youth Engagement
Who am I? How does this inform my engagement with youth? What is the evidence and policy supporting youth engagement? Why is it a good organizational practice? How does engagement improve physical health? What is meaningful?

What is youth engagement? What is adult engagement? How does it relate to mental health?
How does adult engagement with youth relate to mental, emotional, and spiritual health for both youth and adults working with youth? Adults will reflect on the panel discussion and the issues youth are facing. How do we look after ourselves while doing this work?

Effective Youth Programs and Organizations
The workshop will address effective practices and ways to create engaging programs. It will debrief adults on: What have you seen so far? Describe an engaged youth. Describe an engaged adult working with youth. Describe what an effective youth organization looks like. A charting activity will lead adults through mapping their organizations and programs with the effective practices and models introduced in the workshop and being observed at the conference. How do adults address difficulties in an equal youth/adult environment?

Effective Youth Allies and Professionals
What do they look like? What are the effective practices we can identify from the group? What effective practices have we observed? What does the literature say? Adult allies as facilitators, resources and mentors. How to make our organizations more inclusive in different ways? What are the issues related to access? Adult Team will generate results from their discussions to feed into the Final Report created at the end of the conference.

Sustaining Adult Engagement
The workshop will address sustaining engagement and the Systemic Challenges faced by adults working with youth. How do we keep ourselves engaged? How do we deal with the systemic barriers to faced by adults working with youth?

SC conference home page