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

The Commission...

The original idea of The Students Commission was the "commissioning" of young people by adults to create ideas, recommendations and projects that would address issues faced by young people and by our society. Adults involved with The Students Commission pledged to work in partnership with young people to make those ideas, recommendations and projects a reality, wherever possible.

Over the years, we have learned that some of the very best students of the troubles faced by young people are either not in school, or experiencing extreme difficulty in school. We focussed our efforts to ensure that these "students" are respected and represented in every program. A diverse group of young people identifies issues, studies possible solutions and goes into action together. Life experience is acknowledged and respected. We are students of the issues we choose to take on, youth and adults alike in The Students Commission. We have come to see this as "Sharing Resources."

We hold these Commissions at least four times a year through a program called Sharing Resources, which receives significant financial support from Exchanges Canada, a program of Canadian Heritage. Keep in touch with our website: www.tgmag.ca to keep up-to-date with the latest topics, dates and locations.

These Commissions have a carefully developed, multi-layered program, which should not be confused with a typical one-off conference. They are designed to be "life-changing." They are core motivational and skill-building elements in a long-term relationship with each participant through the on-going program of The Students Commission and the organizational partners who send youth and adults to our Commissions.

Who are we...

The Students Commission is a non-profit, charitable organization that organizes national youth conferences every year, but it's also a lot more than that. Our conferences are organized by youth, for youth. Yeah, we have a few adults hangin' around to make sure we're on track and to help us pay the bills, but it's the young people who run the show. Our adults have commissioned us to give them our ideas. That's the whole point of The Students Commission -- to give youth a voice and to show them that they CAN make a difference in this country.

The event, as an officially sponsored Exchanges Canada program, has the youth travel costs covered so that the cost to bring a youth is $700 per youth for the March conference and $500 per youth for the summer conference. This includes all other costs associated with the event: conference fees, accommodation and meals. For adults bringing youth to the conference, there is an active professional development component. A workshop series will focus on helping adults become stronger adult allies in their work with youth and students. Led by the Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement, the adult component will be based on best practices found in research and practice from Canada and around the world. Adult fees are also $700, plus their own transportation.

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