Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Battlefords has been honoured to be one of the coordinating partners of the Youth Voice/Youth Engagement Initiative since it’s inception in 2018.
“It’s so important that as people who work with our commmunities…with our youth and their families, that we create space for voice” – Candace Wasacase-Lafferty, Senior Director of Indigenous Engagement | University of Saskatchewan [Sept 28, 2022 | Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada Big Scholars Series]
How It All Started
Over 40 youth serving and youth involved agencies, organizations, and individuals came together in the Fall of 2017 to form the Battlefords Youth Network (BYN) to strengthen the communication, circle of support, and partner programming across our communities. During vision and values planning it was identified that youth voice and perspective was something that was desired to ensure that services were being provided in a way that was helpful to their experience. A team of adult allies from BBBS, Youth Mental Health and Addictions, Public Health, and the RCMP came together in 2018 to start working on developing spaces and places where youth voice and experience could be shared through developing trusting relationships with our youth and hearing their unfiltered perspective. That adult ally team has grown to include two coordinating adult allies from BBBS and Concern for Youth (CFY) and several other adult allies supporting conversations, our annual Youth Forum, and other youth-centered activities and initiatives.
What We’ve Learned So Far
Current Themes on-going for discovery: mental health support and what are the needs/learning requests from youth; healthy relationships and connections; navigating conversations with other adults; lack of feeling engaged and a heard and valued part of the community; youth experience and navigating pressures and challenges; impact of safety and feelings of safety in building healthy communities
2018 – 1st Youth Forum
Youth feel unheard by adults and decision makers in the community – “People in higher power, people who can make a change and not invite us to speak just to say they heard our opinion and not doing anything about it” – and it impacted their sense of belonging and community. Safety was a large topic and we started the community mapping exercise to learn more about youth experience in spaces at large. They also spoke at length about racism, adults not understanding how much pressure they feel, the impacts their families feel, and the levels of violence that they are aware of.
Requests: “A youth center when Indigenous and non-Indigenous can participate in cultural teachings and fieldtrips. Then we won’t be bored and do bad things. Where we can feel safe and there should be no age limit.” Access to activities that youth have an interest in | Mental Health Trainings and Support | 2SLGBTQ+ supports specific to youth
2019 – Youth Forum and StS Engaged in Community Survey (In-Kind from the Students Commission of Canada)
Engaged in Community Survey:
Youth shared that they don’t feel heard by those in community that make decisions (negative response to the question “Most community leaders would pay attention to me if I gave them my opinion”), they did not feel like they are a part of the community, and they did not have an interest in being involved in volunteer opportunities in the community. The researcher noted that Battlefords and area youth participants had scores that statistically significantly lower than youth in other programs across the country. It was also noted that youth tended to not post to social media regarding current events and other issues BUT youth were aware of their surroundings and the issues their community is facing.
Youth Forum Themes Identified:
Safety – Youth challenged our (the adults) conceptualizations of safety. They shared they are not trusting of adults, and that is especially true for the professionals in the community. Youth also indicated that they did not perceive the school to be a safe place and that the experience when seeking emergency mental health support was not what they hoped it would be, particularly at the hospital | Bullying and Conversations on Healthy Relationships – Youth identified that the bullying currently occurring in our area goes beyond our adult conceptualization. We are only starting to uncover what this means and learning through our youth the context surrounding bullying in the Battlefords and area. There was also a realization that many youth were struggling with balancing and engaging in what they felt were healthy relationships with peers, family, and partners. | Division of Race – This was certainly present in many of the sessions at the Forum. Through further discussion with our youth we hope to explore this further. Youth identified that they felt it at school and from adults in community equally. | Youth have A Lot To Carry – A consistent theme was youth mistrusting the adults in their life and carrying the weight of their struggles alone.
Requests: Mental health supports and training for youth (peer-to-peer) | 2SLGBTQ+ Youth Support | a 24/7 open access youth centre with rec facilities and programming
2020 – Online Youth Q+A
Youth specifically mentioned missing school gatherings, hanging out with friends, sports, being able to take part in community groups, and big life events during the pandemic. They also talked about their feelings of “people not taking COVID-19 seriously.” Youth shared these specific thoughts that adults should know about the youth experience: “That our life now is different from theirs so they can’t always expect they know everything about how we need to spend our lives.” | “I think they should know that we’re not perfect. Everyone has ups and downs and we’re still learning so please be patient. We will make mistakes but if we want to go for something and risk making mistakes then let us. We still want your care and love and for you to be there with and for us. Just please let us be who we want to be and don’t leave us. Thank you.” Youth talked about struggling with social media, their mental health, navigating expectations, and the ability to make mistakes without it being held against them.
Requests: access to free activities that were interactive and focused on learning skills like cooking, beading, decorating, art, yoga, etc | conversations around mental health, healthy relationships, taking care of yourself, and how to be your own person | wanted to hear from motivational speakers that could inspire them
2021 – Individual Youth Forums at Local High Schools
Themes from the Community Conversations in the schools: JPII: Mental Health/Pressure/Balance | Sakewew: safety/adults listening but don’t feel heard (expectation put in their heads; self-fulfilling prophecy that they won’t amount to anything because that’s what’s expected of them) | Comp: classroom experience and overwhelming amount of work/expectations. Youth in general talked about the gender divide in experiences and sexualized crime (both “big stuff” (sexual assault) and “not big stuff” (cat-calling)). There was also several discussions around what is a problem and that “my problems are less” than perception that was impacting their willingness to report crime and seek supports. Youth also shared that they need to see evidence of adult trust; Students feel watched and monitored – but does that mean heard? Male-identified youth spoke about the need for space where they feel they are heard and don’t have to act out or be louder to feel heard
Requests: youth center and youth-centered spaces that were open access
2022 – Youth Conversations and Insight So Far
Food security is a MASSIVE concern; youth are far more aware of the struggles of their family and the cost of living than adults might realize | Languages of Appreciation (Feb 2022): Youth renamed all of the languages of appreciation – don’t like the title of physical touch at all and preferred to talk about it as connection, but it didn’t necessarily have to involve a physical connection; youth enjoyed being able to give gifts (even if small) to show their appreciation and connection (thinking of each other) – Connection to others: compliments, affection, sharing space, gift giving, accepting for who they are, attention from others | Youth perceptions of support: They shared that they don’t like it when they get blanket offers for help (Let me know if you need help or how can I help you) and prefer to have specifics (Can I help you with _________? Would it be helpful if I ________?) | Related to a fear of asking for help in a way that someone isn’t able to or willing to actually do
| Youth desire spaces for open and honest conversation or question asking with supportive non-judgmental adults (topics: residential schools, mental health, current topics (Roe vs Wade overturn))