By Owen Charters, President & CEO, BGC Canada

January 16, 2024

In BGC Clubs, we strive to listen to youth voices. We have strategic directions to amplify youth voices, assist them in finding their voice, and to help them to become youth advocates to get their messages out to policymakers and decision-makers.

For many people, the start of a new year is an opportunity to reflect, start fresh, and focus on new habits, goals, or projects. For BGC Canada, the new year is a good time to remind ourselves of the importance of our work—positively impacting young people’s lives and creating safe spaces for them to develop the skills they need to succeed.

In BGC Clubs, we strive to listen to youth voices. We have strategic directions to amplify youth voice, assist them find their voice, and get their messages out to policymakers and decision-makers. Under our vision for Strong Voice, we will “reflect and amplify youth voices and share youth perspectives” and “be a timely voice with both governments and media on emerging issues that affect children and youth.”

BGC Canada’s National Youth Council

BGC Canada’s National Youth Council (NYC) allows a voice of youth in our governance—a way to bridge the gap between Club youth and BGC Canada. We need to hear what’s important, their concerns, and their vision for us to guide our organization and our movement to meet the needs and dreams of our members.

Throughout their term as an NYC member, these young leaders will set professional development goals, offer insight to the BGC Canada national team through committees, connect with the Board of Directors to discuss issues facing youth, and plan and deliver our biennial National Youth Forum—where youth in Clubs come together for workshops, activities, and excursions.

Ultimately, our NYC members serve as role models for future members and youth in Clubs in their provinces and across Canada. Accomplishments from past NYC years include multiple statements (State of the Youth Report, anti-racism, anti-trans legislation, and mental health), visits to Parliament Hill, conferences and workshops nationwide, and more.

Our National Youth Council is one of many and is not the only youth voice on the stage. There is a history of powerful and vital youth voices; in fact, thousands of voices call powerfully for change around the globe, and so many here in Canada.

BGC Canada’s 2024 National Youth Council

In December 2023, 12 youth from across the country were elected to sit on our 2024-2025 National Youth Council. They met at our national office in Toronto to discuss their roles and responsibilities as council members. They set goals, and started planning advocacy projects for young people in Clubs.

How can we really listen to youth voices?

Youth voices are powerful and often are singularly focused. The response from older decision-makers is often one of nodding admission of the issue but then pivoting to get back to business—business, meaning finding compromises that erode and undermine the core principles of what these youth voices bring to the table. Because, as we all know, the older you get, the more you know you have to be pragmatic and balance the demands of ‘real life’ with the ideals of urgent action.

Is this okay? Is this the way it should be? Governing—whether at the UN, or the federal level, or at the national board table, or in the board meetings of member Clubs—is about compromise. But shouldn’t it also be driven by the unwavering focus of these youthful ideals?

If we really, truly want change, don’t we have to be as equally uncompromising?

We borrow this land from our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren; we need to look at least seven generations ahead. If that pearl of Indigenous wisdom is true, then decisions need to be made that include the long view, the perspectives of the young people who see the world and the society they will inherit, and are frankly concerned that short-term interests are prioritized much too often.

We need to overcome the bias for decision-makers to make decisions for those who look, act, and are like themselves, including those of the same generation. We need to lift the voices of the youth we serve, bring them to the table, and have their calls ring out for accountability. There are many, many more. They exist in our Clubs. And where they are outside our Clubs, we need to engage with them.

We need to listen to them. And we need to give them the biggest megaphones we can find. We must broker the forums where their voices can be heard by those in power. We need to create a future for seven generations and beyond.

This statement was written by members of BGC Canada’s National Youth Council (NYC). The NYC is a council comprised of youth across the country who give input on and reflect youth issues and goals. The NYC operates independently of BGC Canada.

As youth of BGC Clubs, we are concerned with policies and issues that urgently affect youth across the country. We welcome the creation of the State of Youth Report and its insights on key issues, including reconciliation, climate, health, employment, and leadership & skills building.

As settlers on Indigenous territory, we are concerned about systemic racism and the ongoing oppression of Indigenous youth and communities across Canada and its Nations. We echo the State of Youth Report’s call for non-Indigenous Canadians to adopt citizen responsibility and engage with the histories, cultures, and rights of the original caretakers of this land. We ask that the government uphold its promises and take concrete action through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, including land back, in order to reconcile Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.

As young people who will bear the costs of climate change, we are frustrated with governments and their lacklustre response to the ongoing climate crisis. Young people across this country and the world deserve to grow up in a clean, safe, and healthy environment. We echo the calls of the report and call on government to prioritize the advice of Indigenous elders and scientists over corporate interests, and to take immediate and serious action against industries responsible for emissions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated many struggles that youth are facing throughout the country. With uncertainty in our lives, disruption in our education, termination or unavailability of employment, and disconnection from our supports, youth mental health is more important to address now than ever.

However, the support currently available is inadequate, especially in many smaller communities. Many feel the answer is technology, however these same communities lack consistent and stable Internet access and some youth do not have access to devices. Youth want and are willing to seek services to help with both their mental and physical health struggles, but need services that suit their unique needs.

The pandemic has exacerbated existing issues facing youth in leadership and employment. Youth across the country are struggling to find meaningful employment and leadership opportunities. Often, the youth who are most affected by the issues at hand are the ones who don’t have the platform to speak on them—for example, youth in rural and remote communities tend to have far fewer opportunities to discover and develop their leadership and employment abilities.

We agree with the State of Youth Report’s calls for greater investments in paid internship and employment opportunities that have career growth opportunities, as well as the need for a centralized database that collates leadership as well as employment opportunities for Canadian youth outside the difficult to use Canada Job Bank.

With the appointment of a new Cabinet, we look forward to the action the Honourable Minister of Youth will take on the recommendations of the State of Youth Report. It is crucial to empower and engage youth voices on key issues because when youth are able to grow and thrive through activism, better health outcomes, and employment security, they are better able to contribute to their communities, Clubs, and country.

By Owen Charters

Youth voices are rising again on the vital issue of the environment and climate change.

We have three public policy priorities for Boys & Girls Clubs: youth poverty, youth employment, and mental health. These are the areas where we’re pressing the government to make changes. But we also champion youth in their advocacy work, and the work of environmental activism remains—thankfully—a top priority.

We may be in a pandemic, but as we’ve seen … well, life goes on. There are many battles to fight—not just one against a pernicious virus. Whether it’s Black Lives Matter or Indigenous Reconciliation or LGBTQ rights or gender equity, youth are active on many fronts.

Recent news demonstrated that setbacks will not stop important environmental activism from these youth. In Canada, youth who were suing the federal government around the lack of action on climate change lost their fight in federal court. They plan on taking their case to the Supreme Court. And the annual climate change conference hosted by the UN (the one Greta Thunberg sailed across the Atlantic to attend) was postponed to next year, but youth decided that they would continue with a virtual conference anyway. This is not an issue that can be postponed.

We may have seen some temporary reductions in emissions as fewer people fly or commute to work due to COVID-19, but these are temporary—we’ll be back to our old habits soon enough. And unfortunately, the pandemic has also meant discarding some environmental measures, like accepting reusable mugs, bags, and other personal items in some retailers. Masks are the new litter everywhere we turn, often made of non-biodegradable polypropylene. And courier trucks line the streets now, delivering endless carboard boxes. On my street, recycling day sees rows and rows of ever-growing piles of cardboard as households get small packages inside larger packages day after day, or food packaging from Uber Eats or pre-prepared food kits. It’s not a pretty sight.

The youth remind us—as they always do—that there is a fight today and there is a fight for tomorrow. We cannot let the fight to end the pandemic allow us to falter in our fight to create a better planet.

Rachel Carson, the author of Silent Spring, the original treatise that really kicked off the environmental movement, challenges us:

“We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost’s familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road—the one less traveled by—offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth.”