Twenty-two key informant interviews1 were conducted during the “Taking Stock” project, with a view to gaining a wide and diverse perspective about what was happening in the child- and youth-serving sector in Canada. As with the survey, this phase of the project did not attempt to gather a random or statistically representative sample of the sector,…
Issue Area: Youth
Summary: Celebrating its 11th anniversary, the collaborative approach to early childhood development in British Columbia implemented by United Way through its Success By 6 program is an intriguing model, which bears remarkable similarity to the Collective Impact framework. Supported by the provincial government and the credit union movement and coordinated by a modest provincial office, the…
Background The idea of renewing or revisioning philanthropy, so that it better serves young people, is of great personal interest to me. I have spent most of my working life as an educator, counsellor, researcher, psychologist, and advocate trying to improve the lives of youth, particularly those pushed to the margins of Canadian society or…
According to the 2006 Canadian Census, there was a total of 1,172,785 Aboriginal people in Canada, comprising 3.8% of the Canadian population. In 2006, the median age of the total Aboriginal population was 27 years, 13 years lower than the median age of non-Aboriginals (Statistics Canada, 2008). The increase in Aboriginal children and youth comes at…
Giving With Confidence: A Guide To Savvy Philanthropy By Colburn Wilbur and Fred Setterberg Berkeley, California: Heyday; 2012 isbn: 978-1-5971-4204-5 If you want to give away your money, there is now more advice than ever available, with authors clamouring over each other to provide the most informative or inspirational counsel. If you want big name…
It is a commonly held belief that Canada’s future rests in the hands of our children and youth, and that, as they learn, grow, and become active participants in Canadian society, they will shape our values and determine our future social and economic course. If it is true, then the care we demonstrate, the investments…
Community engagement and development offer youth the opportunity to communicate their desires and have their voices heard. But young Canadians do not participate in community life, for example, political elections, political campaigns, or interest groups, in the same capacity as older Canadians. They are less interested in and have less knowledge of politics (O’Neill, 2007),…
Show Roger Hart’s Ladder of Young People’s Participation (1997) to a room full of engaged young people and you will likely be greeted with vigorous head nods. “How many of you have experienced the bottom three rungs of the ladder—manipulation, decoration, or tokenism?” I tentatively asked a youth audience several years ago during a civic…
Introduction When I saw the call for papers for this special edition “Young People and the Future of Philanthropy,” I jumped at the opportunity to contribute to this important dialogue. As a worker, employer, and volunteer in the nonprofit sector, I am acutely aware that young people have many choices about how to direct their…
Introduction This article discusses the stigma faced by young people growing up in state care. It presents an exploration of the concept of stigma and considers the potential economic, social, and political consequences of growing up with a public stigma. It then describes techniques that support the engagement of young care-leavers by providing a platform…