Here's a brief glimpse of what to expect, how the program works and why some things are arranged the way they are.

Before the conference

Forms:
Gathering information from people before the event helps us to include everyone and to communicate appropriately with all participants. All information that we gather is kept confidential, and not given to anyone outside of our organization.
The personal information on each person - name, address etc. allows us to communicate with participants both before and after the conference. Age, gender, language etc. allows us to place people in groups or teams that have a mix of backgrounds and experiences. In addition, we ask that each participant under 18 years of age have a "permission form" signed by a parent or guardian. This is legal protection for them and for us.
We have everyone fill out a medical form, which is used for medical emergencies, and destroyed after the event. Everyone is also asked to sign a media release which allows us to film and record events and to use those materials in educational, non-profit products. People who do not wish to be or who cannot be recorded simply do not sign this form.

Expectations:
During a conference, our main concern is that all participants, adult and youth have the safest and most positive experience possible. Over the years, we have developed a few guidelines. We call them expectations, not rules, since we hope that everyone personally commits to being part of making this happen. This is how we build a community during the event. Most youth are accustomed to being asked to follow these expectations. What they don't usually experience is an environment where everyone no matter what their age follows the same expectations based upon principles of equality and the assumption that if the expectation is a reasonable one it is practical and in the best interests of the individual in relationship to the current community. It is our hope that adults who attend our events will also follow them, to role model positive behaviour, to help keep everyone safe and healthy, and to focus on equal opportunities to develop adult/youth relationships.

During the Conference

Team Orientation Sessions:
Time for the people in each Team to meet each other and get comfortable before we all start to discuss issues and experiences. Includes icebreakers, discussion of how the team wants to operate in discussions (norms and expectations), sharing of who you are and where you come from.

Youth Team Orientation Session:
A session for youth participants to think about and discuss what will be the challenges for them as participants in an adult-youth conference. Things like: feeling comfortable in speaking up in a session; how do we ensure safety for youth participants; when and how to talk about your own personal experiences and the validity of your experiences - you are the experts on youth; how do we make sure we are respectful of adult ideas and contributions; how to deal with the power dynamics between adults and youth; how to listen and get clarification on what adults are saying without sounding stupid; what to do with feelings; what to do with boredom; what to do with feeling restless; the Students Commission four pillars…

Adult Team Orientation Session:
A session for adult participants to think about and discuss what will be the challenges for them as participants in an adult-youth conference. Things like: how do we make sure we are respectful of youth ideas and contributions and still be an equal partner; valuing life experiences of youth; ensuring youth voices are heard in sessions; how to ask the questions; how to listen to the answers; being aware of levels of language and vocabulary and different "cultures" of all participants; being aware of power dynamics in communications; the Students Commission four pillars…

Team Check-ins:
At breakfast, members of a team look around to make sure that they are all there. This helps identify who might need an extra wake up call! Usually, people who have slept in appreciate not having to miss any sessions.
Home Teams:
Each participant will be part of a “Home Team”. Home Teams will go through most of the day program together (plenaries and working sessions). This allows participants to get to know a small group of participants in their team, creating a safe and supportive atmosphere, which will enable and encourage youth to speak up in the working sessions.

Team Chats:
Each night the team gets together for a brief period after the optional activities, to chat about what the day was like. This helps everyone to share good and bad experiences, and to make sure everyone is present and safe. Team members can process together what they have learned (heads), how they are feeling (hearts), and what they will do with what they have learned (feet).

Night Owl Sessions:
For those who are able and willing, time to stay up, relax, have some informal fun and interact with people they haven't met yet. This happens in the "Insomnia Room", away from those trying to sleep in their rooms. We believe that if people have travelled from across the country to meet and work and play together, then expecting everyone to go to sleep at a certain time is not productive. Those who so choose, can sleep when it's over; those who need sleep can sleep.

Cultures and Life Experiences:
Our program puts an important stress on an "affirmative action" recruiting strategy, ensuring that we recruit with the necessary organizations and venues to ensure a broad range of representation from youth across Canada from all walks of life. We also stress the concept developed by youth at our very first Students Commission conference that Canada has three founding cultural groups: First Nations, Francophones and Anglophones.
There is a stress on cross-cultural sharing, especially of an informal, spontaneous nature during the evenings, with music, dance, non-verbal drama and art. We all have life experiences to share as our own "expertise". This is particularly important for young people who do not yet have "titles" to signify their expertise. Often this is the most empowering and informative "learning" of the program.

Language:
All plenary sessions have English-French and ASL interpretation. In teams and working sessions, we have a more informal approach.
Bilingual team leaders or interpreters sit with the Teams during discussions. After someone has made a point, the interpreters briefly repeat the points in the other language.This has the disadvantage of slowing down the discussion, and participants frequently have to be reminded to slow down, make their points, and wait for the translation. Yet this disadvantage has some positive side effects.It has the advantage of letting participants actually hear the other language in action. It's a physical demonstration of a Canadian reality: there are many unilingual Canadians who cannot talk to each other. For most participants, this is a real eye-opener. In our experience, insisting upon the effort and patience that working in three languages requires develops an atmosphere of effective listening and communication. This sets the stage for being able to work toward consensus agreements and opens the doors to exploring a world of similarities and differences across a wide range of cultural, linguistic, racial, economic, provincial and urban/rural issues.

Production and Technology:
People learn and are empowered when they work together to produce something new. This is why our program includes the production of communication tools, be they stories, posters or videos.
Technology is effective, exciting and it gives participants a real opportunity for hands-on activity. We create a production room where this happens, filled with computers, audio recorders, video equipment etc. Delegates are encouraged to bring their own musical instruments and talents to create sound. Delegates can also create a video during the event.Volunteers are assigned to each team to assist them in their production efforts.