Two degrees of separation between hope and despair



A young people's summary of the United Nations Human Development Report 2007/2008

The young people of the world have produced a Youth Booklet that includes drawings, poems and human stories on climate change and development, entirely made by and for young people!

The booklet has been developed by Peace Child International jointly with HDRO, and launched on Youth Day 2008.

The booklet is available for download and as an online draft version where you can watch the publication come together on Peace Child International's website.

Two Degrees of Separation Between Hope and Despair [5,483 KB]
Deux degrés de séparation entre espoir et désespoir [6,392 KB]
Dos grados separan la esperanza de la desesperación [6,776 KB]

At the Rotaract meeting tonight, we planned to do many things to get going on the cycle campaign for one past street youth who is making a difference by fundraising for the new George Jeffrey's Children's Foundation for disabled children. We are also fundraising for a playground facility for the new centre. Our meeting was at the old centre and that area is all undergoing construction. There is a new Addictions treatment centre being built as well as a new long-term care hospital.

Other things we talked about were the Valentine's Day gala fundraiser which will be the biggest one next year. It will be $175 for a couple and they will get a package deal with the party.

Also, the CLE fundraiser was a success. We raised $1900 and they invited us back to do more. We are going to put some books in glass at the St. James school library where the money is going. And put the kids reading books into the newspaper in Thunder Bay.

An interesting Saturday it is today. I sat down this morning to finally finish what has become a month(s) long project of putting together some of the documents that will guide CLC's virtual engagement components as we head into year three.

I'm excited for the coming year! To be able to work with such a wonderful group of people once again is such a pleasure. I am excited to be taking on this new and challenging role of working mainly at coordinating CLC's vitutal engagement goals and working with a great group of coordinators to meet our goals.

A couple more hours at this computer and hopefully all will be complete! :)

Until next time....peace and love.

Kyle

The Canadian Commission for UNESCO was proud to work with Parks Canada and other partners in organizing the Youth component of the 32nd Session of the World Heritage Committee. The World Heritage Committee held its annual meeting in Québec City from July 2 – 10, 2008, coinciding with the city’s 400th anniversary celebration.

The World Heritage Youth Forum brought together 30 young people between the ages of 18 to 25--15 Canadians and 15 others invited by Canada from countries representing the five geographical regions of UNESCO--who spent more than two weeks learning about world heritage and the Convention, undertaking educational visits to Canadian World Heritage sites and attending sessions of the World Heritage Committee. The complete report of the World Heritage Youth Forum will be available shortly on the Canadian Commission’s web site at www.unesco.ca

An outcome of the event is the “Six Billion People, One Common Heritage” dossier, launched through a partnership with the National Film Board of Canada. It contains many photos and texts posted by the youth participants as well as the video they produced and presented at the opening ceremony of the 32nd Session of the World Heritage Committee. To view the video: http://citizen.nfb.ca/youth-and-world-heritage

Today, the Web site aims at being a platform for exchanges and discussions about World Heritage between youth from all over the globe, and all are invited to contribute.

To do so, please go to: http://citizen.nfb.ca/six-billion-people-one-common-heritage

Further information about the work of the 32nd Session of the World Heritage Committee can be found at https://www.canada2008.ca/en

For information about World Heritage sites in Canada, go the Parks Canada web site at http://www.pc.gc.ca

Source: Canadian Commission for UNESCO www.unesco.ca


La Commission canadienne pour l’UNESCO est fière d’avoir collaboré avec Parcs Canada et d’autres partenaires dans l’organisation du volet jeunesse de la 32e Session du Comité du patrimoine mondial, qui s’est déroulée à Québec du 2 au 10 juillet, dans le cadre de son 400e anniversaire.

Pendant plus de deux semaines, 30 jeunes, âgés de 18 à 25 ans - 15 Canadiens et 15 personnes venant de pays qui représentent les cinq régions géographiques de l’UNESCO - se sont réunis au Canada pour en apprendra davantage au sujet du patrimoine mondial et de la Convention. Ils ont visité certains sites du patrimoine mondial du Canada et ont assisté à des sessions du Comité du patrimoine mondial. Le rapport final de la composante jeunesse sera bientôt disponible sur le site Web de la Commission au www.unesco.ca
L’un des résultats de cet événement est le lancement du site « Six milliards d’êtres humains, un héritage commun » lancé grâce à un partenariat avec l’Office national du film du Canada. Le dossier contient plusieurs photos et articles publiés par les jeunes participants ainsi que la vidéo qu’ils ont produite et qui a été présentée lors de la cérémonie d’ouverture de la 32e Session du Comité du patrimoine mondial. Pour visionner la vidéo : http://citoyen.onf.ca/video-volet-jeunesse-32e-session

Aujourd’hui, le site se veut être une plateforme d’échanges et de discussions entre jeunes de partout intéressés par le patrimoine mondial et tous sont invités à y contribuer. Pour se faire allez au : http://citoyen.onf.ca/six-milliards-d-etres-humains-un-heritage-commun

De plus amples renseignements sur les travaux de la 32e Session du Comité du patrimoine mondial se trouvent à https://www.canada2008.ca/fr

Pour plus de détails sur les sites du Patrimoine mondial au Canada, veuillez consulter le site Web de Parcs Canada : http://www.pc.gc.ca

My TIG Youth Engagement Coordinator position is being renewed this year. I will be working on climate change workshops for September to December, Social Networking for Social change workshops for January to March, and then April I get to choose a workshop topic. I will also be attending an event a month for networking, blogging on the Creating Local Connections project page weekly and doing three training sessions. I'll be working on CLC until April.

I will also be working for the Pathways project as youth team leader. This is a project where I will be involved in coordinating a youth team to be engaged in mental health research about depression and anxiety treatment options. This program is out of York University and will be working at Brock, University of Manitoba, Brandon University, McMaster, and York. There will be focus groups with young adults ages 18-25 to determine how they would like to receive treatment, who they would like to receive it from, and where they would like to get it.

It's going to be a busy year but I'm looking forward to it. I am going to set some priorities for my work and make sure I follow through on everything I am planning to do and develop my ideas by working with others and learning about the place of my projects in the world.

Irwin came for a visit last night to discuss the possibility of having a Child and Youth Advocate office in the North. We discussed having one in Thunder Bay in conjunction with the Multicultural Youth Centre in a space in Victoriaville Mall.

Down the road, we are also looking at one in Sioux Lookout and Kenora.

We also discussed the way that the Child and Youth Advocate Office will be run. Irwin wanted suggestions about the two options that the organization could have. One is to hire a worker in Thunder Bay and that would be grassroots and community based. The other option is to go to Toronto for guidance and get help running the Thunder Bay office from Toronto.

If we get a Thunder Bay office, I think it would help get Aboriginal youth involved in the process of decision making and Irwin suggested we get our message to the urban centres who will be funding us and making the decisions.

When I grow older
I will be stronger
They'll call me freedom
Just like a waving flag

-K'Naan

I have just arrived back in Toronto after a wonderful, crazy, busy and mind stretching week at the 4th World Youth Congress in Quebec City.

I wanted to write as the thoughts are fresh in my mind. It's hard to sum into a few words what I want to say, as there are a flurry of emotions which are crowding my ability to describe clearly everything that I saw and experienced. All I know is that these youth conferences always leave me feeling revitalized, re-energized and positive about the changes which our youth want to make in the world. So often we are jaded by this ideal and desire to "change the world". People think that this is a naive way of thinking and it is reserved for the young minds who do not know better.

Well, you know what? If these thoughts to better our world are considered naive, then I am not ashamed to say that I am naive. I would rather be put into this category of so called youth who know no better, then to be jaded, conservative and take no action to at least TRY and achieve the unity and peace which the living beings in our world deserve.

I had the privilege to meet hundreds of youth from over 100 countries, including Ghana, Spain, Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, Brazil, the US, Canada, Kenya and Benin. The pool of talents, passion and drive which surrounded me for a week made me feel blessed to be where I am.

Thank you to all at the World Youth Congress who re-validated the view that changing the world is not naive, but indeed a reality which many others strive for.

live and love,
Mai

Intercity hosted a volunteer booth fair with the Summer student government office. We had a booth and had youth fill out the Student's Commission's children's rights surveys.

The Youthscape LEGO grant selection committee is busy evaluating the allocation of funds for the next year. This new project is going to be a success because all applications were well received and there is a film, environmental project, photovoice, volunteerism project, and more.

The leadership team meeting was great this week and we made some progress in the community partnerships area. This project is going to be successful because there is not a research-driven mental health project like it yet that involves the community in an active way.

I've been busy working on the summer budget for Youthscape and getting the funds allocated to the proper areas for the next 3-4 months. The bookkeeper is looking at the budget for me and the Executive Director will look at it too when he gets back.

Last weekend was a busy time in Thunder Bay. It was the fair and the youth centre was involved in the kids' area again this year. We were getting youth to fill out surveys about children's rights and volunteer registration forms to participate in our programming. I think the younger kids enjoyed themselves too when they were making crafts, drawing, and adding their future career wishes and hand prints to our tree of the future.

The Rotaract fundraiser during the day helped us raise almost $2000 for the St. James School library. In the future, the youth centre should do the vehicle parking fundraiser too.

So I finally arrived at the 4th World Youth Congress which is taking place in Quebec City, Quebec Canada on August 10th in the early hours of the morning. I had started my journey at 10am from the small town in England where I was living and took the public transit bus to the Stansted airport where I then took a National Express bus to the Heathrow airport. The traffice was slow due to the time of day and it would be a general summary of the over all trip to Canada but once I arrived at Heathrow things went smoothly checking in all the camera equipment that I would be using to bring the congress to youth who are interested but could not attend though the World Youth Congress YouTube Channel. The flight across the Atlantic was long but it allowed me to catch up on some applications and scholarships that I was getting close on the deadline to but I was glad to have finally arried back in Canada. The trip trough Canadian customs was quick and painless and I was soon on my third bus from the Montreal airport to the downtown bus station where I would cathc my final bus to Quebec City. When I finally arrived to Quebec City it was 1am Eastern and I was looking forward to getting rid of my luggage and getting to sleep in a bed but that was not to be the case. With things not being to organized I had arrived to Laval University with no where to check into a room, while I knew the othe Peace Child International staff who had flown two days prior were somewhere on campus without any contact information it would have to be a combination of sleeping on a chair and some times leaning on a table to get some sleep until 7am when I was hoping to finally made the end of my journey finished by checking into a room. I did get to see a former Peace Child intern, Annas who I had breakfast with him and his wife Claire which was a not to bad way to wrap up a very long journey to the congress. With all of my recent work on an UNDP Youth Climate Change Project will the emissions from my travel be worth me attending the congress? I will find out in the upcoming days.

I headed off in the morning to the Australian Science and Math School, hosted at Flinders University. The school is only a few years old, and is built with an open concept -- no classrooms, but instead a number of large spaces with desks and chairs that reconfigured in many different ways to foster teamwork and collaboration. We had a large group - about 50 teachers and school leaders, and had a really interesting day -- when I showed the "Are you listening?" video, a whole bunch of students gathered upstairs in the area overlooking where I was speaking to watch - I think they were really curious that so many teachers were learning about their way of using technology!

After a fantastic dinner by the water with a group of curriculum developers, I headed to sleep -- because I had to catch a 6:40am flight to Canberra!

I made it to the nation's capital early in the morning, and it was freezing! 0 degrees but it warmed up as the sun rose... I had a few hours to fit the gym and have lunch before heading to Canberra University -- the group in Canberra decided to have an evening workshop (4-9pm) with dinner. Although everyone had a full day of work before showing up, we still had a lot of active participation, and after wrapping up at 9 and getting back to the hotel around 10, it was time for sleep for another 6:45am flight back to Sydney for the last workshop of the trip!

Arriving in Sydney in the morning, with my 32kg on-the-dot bag faithfully appearing on the carousel, I headed off to Parramatta right on time, and arrived 3 minutes before the workshop was to begin! We had the biggest crowd of any session -- around 60 people, and so a lot of the interactive sections took a lot longer than usual, but they had great ideas and a large group of schools approached me after and wants to deeply engage their entire district with TIGed, which is exciting! After wrapping up and chatting with a bunch of the attendees, I was off to one of my favourite hotels in the world -- the Westin Sydney, to relax, enjoy their great gym, and have dinner with Jenny, who had the whole series of workshops organized, to debrief on the experience (yum, Tasmanian lamb!). After that, I met up with Jarra and Nick, and headed to Micky's for dessert (Banana Pancakes and Ice Cream!) to catch up and for me to celebrate the completion of 10 sessions in 11 days in 5 cities!

I'm writing this now on the flight to Vancouver -- I managed to get right to sleep after lunch on the 10am flight, which will hopefully mean I can work through the North American day and head to sleep at a proper time tonight. Saturday, we head to Quebec City for the World Youth Congress to meet TIG members from all over the world. I've also agreed to head to Brisbane on the 19th to speak at the Queenland Government's e-learning summit, and after that, I'll be ready to just settle down at home and enjoy the rest of the summer in Toronto :)

Terms of Reference

* Role of Committee Members
- Skills and abilities will be matched to working role so if someone is good at something, it will be encouraged that they pursue it.
- Under youth mentor/adult ally – we shall showcase people who are successful and encourage people who have great ideas

* Code of Conduct
- Express our opinions and ideas
- Not persuade a young person into doing something you want them to do

What will success look like?
- Youth led, set the bar for youth-led initiatives and be a model for youth engagement
- Empower youth and build capacity
- Target underserviced youth
- Evaluation and tract record of the impact made
- Youth/Adult partnerships
- More young people engaged/Community enhancement
- Successful applicants go on to be mentors for other youth
- Meet goals, learning, participation from youth
- Youth doing what they interests them
- Natural inclusion process of youth from adult allies in organizations, decision making processes, and systems
- Youth gain the skills to voice their opinions about how youth should be included
- Youth more connected to other youth efforts and groups
- Reinforcing youth involved in projects that affect their well-being
- Youth more aware of how to make impact and take action in their community
- Effect the community in a positive way
- Encourage more youth to do what they enjoy doing
- Have a fundraising committee in the City to showcase all of the projects to solicit support from City of Thunder Bay to have young people ask for grant making clubs that have one grant per year

Principle/Priority
- Funder’s forum
- Conference for awareness about the funding
- If we have youth to practice their proposal writing skills to help them learn how to write large-scale funding grant applications
- Quick action grants idea for small things that are low-organizational
- Meet again a few times in the next little while to clarify what amount of funding we will give to whom.

Selection
- We don’t want to pick apart the ideas to the point where youth lose their enthusiasm
- We want the end product to be a true reflection of the funder and the youth who are going through the struggles and challenges that they are speaking out against
- Are we engaging a diverse group?
- How are we going to give feedback to the young people? Send a delegation one on one to work through the issues, meet the person, and get them to expand. This is important for the learning process of the youth too
- Not any of the proposal should be rejected completely and we could help them to get to where they need to be suggested Renee.
- Sandra has hopes for the evaluation to pick the pieces out that were positive and every project has potential in line with Youthscape perceptive

Youth can find out more about a National project to engage youth in youth centres by joining the facebook group TYPS youth board. Some of the main functions will be planning the annual TYPS conference, conceptualizing the gala, and providing input into a website that will be a tool to ease communication among youth centres.

We will be meeting over skype every Tuesday night at 7 PM and will be offering our ideas to the general adult board who meets quarterly.

I've attended TYPS for two years in a row and next year it is in Ottawa. Interested youth can find out more at www.typs.com.

For now, we are trying to come up with guest speakers and workshop topics as well as planning the gala luncheon to be held on Tuesday, October 28th. Also, we are looking for ideas on how to engage youth through information communication technologies, especially through TIG.

TIG also is getting Laidlaw grants to do workshops in SouthWestern Ontario and look at ways that youth centres have been involved in promoting recreation and helping some of those centres to communicate through the internet.

La Formulaire à la DJC est finalment disponible en Français!

Rétrouver-la ici: www.projects.takingitglobal.org/cydpoznan/docs

Here is a very amazing story of someone who is making huge waves for African women with HIV-AIDS. Kristin Roe who has swam from my little province of Prince Edward Island to New Brunswick and then straight back again.

Read the whole story below.

Marathon swimmer touches shore in P.E.I. after finishing gruelling double-crossing

Jul 26, 2008

BORDEN-CARLETON, P.E.I. — After just under 15 hours of swimming in 19-degree water, a Nova Scotia woman completed a marathon swim Saturday that took her from Prince Edward Island to New Brunswick and back, all in less than a day.

Kristin Roe, 27, touched shore in P.E.I. Saturday evening after finishing a gruelling 30-kilometre double-crossing of the Northumberland Strait, the body of water between P.E.I. on the Maritime mainland.

"I'm really glad I finished, I'm really glad I'm on land," said Roe after her swim. "It was a long-haul."

Roe left P.E.I. just after 4 a.m. and was ahead of schedule before she was confronted with strong tides just off the coast of New Brunswick. She had to power through the tides in order to make it to shore around noon.

"I was feeling frustration throughout most of it," said Roe. "It wasn't really a great weather day, and I didn't swim as fast as I had hoped...I was swimming against the wind at the end of the first crossing."

Roe waded on shore in New Brunswick to eat and get a medical check-up before diving back in the water.

"The second crossing was better, but still really hard," she said. "I was so tired from the first, and I just did the best I could."

Following her throughout the entire swim was a boat carrying her family, best friend, a paramedic and the boat captain.

Roe has three brothers who joined her from time to time in the water.

Her older brother, Christopher, brought along a surf board and paddled next to Roe to motivate her and keep her company.

"I was feeling pretty frustrated at the end of the first crossing, and I almost couldn't look at him because I started to cry when I saw him paddling next to me," said Roe. "I thought it was pretty amazing."

Roe, who now lives in Halifax, did the marathon to raise money for two Canadian aid organizations with a focus on Africa and helping women with HIV-AIDS.

The Hamilton, Ont., native estimates she's raised close to $30,000 toward her goal of $100,000 for the Stephen Lewis Foundation and Farmers Helping Farmers, an organization that assists women farmers in Kenya.

It's a cause that's close to Roe's heart. In 2006, she spent six months living in South Africa and while there she became the first Canadian to swim from Cape Town, South Africa to Robben Island, in a fundraiser for women living with HIV-AIDS.

"I think it's created a lot of awareness in the country, and I think it's benefiting women in Africa," said Roe of her swim. "These are very much grassroots projects for women affected by AIDS and women involved in the agriculture sector who are also affected by HIV-AIDS."

Learn more here.