Member Marc
MemberForum Replies Created
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I believe that if people are constantly lured by the appeal of face value “multiculturalism”, void of reflection, we cannot be surprised by anti-Black racism in Ontario. There is a lack of education, and also an unwillingness to believe that sin exists in our politeness.
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YouthREX is excited to partner with professional information designer Chris Lysy
to offer two free interactive webinars to support your youth program evaluations!Don’t miss User Experience (UX) Evaluation on December 1st (1-2:30PM ET) and Creative Reporting in Evaluation on December 8th (1-2:30PM ET).
The first session will explore ways that UX strategies can improve the design of the process evaluation component of a youth program evaluation.
The second session will look at how you can share your evaluation findings in more creative, accessible, and engaging ways.
Both webinars will allow you to ask your questions, tackle current challenges in your work, and connect with other participants. Attend one or both!
Learn more and register today.
Oh, and all of our webinars are recorded and archived on our Knowledge Hub. 🙂
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YouthREX is excited to partner with professional information designer Chris Lysy
to offer two interactive webinars to support your youth program evaluations: User Experience (UX) Evaluation and Creative Reporting in Evaulation. To learn more about what each webinar involves, please visit https://youthrex.com/webinars/.🔗Register for User Experience (UX) Evaluation: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/user-experience-ux-evaluation-registration-210022341477
🔗Register for Creative Reporting in Evaluation: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/creative-reporting-in-evaluation-registration-210028590167
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Spreadsheets like Excel offer a variety of different formulas to help with analyzing your program data. What formula have you found to be helpful in analyzing your program data and why?
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Program evaluation is important for youth sector stakeholders, but it can be tricky remembering its various components. Our team at YouthREX has created a user-friendly glossary that provides a summary of all of the key evaluation terms. Check it out below!
You can also visit YouthREX’s website to
learn more about our Framework for Evaluating Youth Wellbeing and online Evaluation Toolkit. -
Our friends at MENTOR Canada shared that they will partner with the Canadian Centre for Mentoring Research to host the first-ever virtual edition of the Canadian Institute on Youth Mentoring on January 20-21, 2022.
This event will explore how mentoring supports the mental health of young people and discuss strategies for effectively mentoring youth with mental health needs.
This unique professional development opportunity in the youth mentoring field relies on a small group format to create a think-tank atmosphere to delve into program practices and innovation. Participants will learn about the latest development in theory and research on youth mentoring and mental health, engage in conversations with scholars and program staff, and think about how research findings can be applied to improve policies and practices.
Space is limited, and an application is required. Please note that the application deadline is December 13, 2021, and that the registration fee for accepted applicants is $100.
You can learn more and register online. 🙂
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📣 Calling all youth and youth workers in Ontario!
Share your thoughts in the Ontario Youth Sector Compass, a YouthREX research project focused on understanding the experiences of young people (ages 16-29) and youth workers in the province. We want to understand what supports young people in Ontario need to thrive and what supports youth workers need to work with youth as healthily as possible.
✍ Want to participate? You can complete an online survey, and/or participate in a 1-on-1 interview. Interview participants get a $50 honorarium. Survey participants will be entered into a draw to win one of many prizes worth up to $500!
🗓 Deadline to participate: December 6th
LEARN MORE: https://youthrex.com/on-youth-compass/ #ONYouthCompass
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I find everyone’s answers very valuable. I think critical reflection every day is very important, along with familiarizing ourselves with various resources within our community that can be beneficial for youth’s overall well-being. It is also important that we create a working relationship with those resources.
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I think that one of the contributing factors to this may be a historical lack of attention to discussing and addressing racism in our educational systems at all levels. It feels that it has just been recently that space has been allowed and created to address, discuss and challenge anti-black racism and hopefully lead to positive changes.
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Even though personal use of cannabis is legal in Canada there is still significant stigma around it as a ‘gateway’ drug to other illegal substances. The media image of the dealer has a Black face, yet the commercialization and profit does not. Black youth who legally use cannabis are more subject to that stigma of being lazy, unfocussed and irresponsible. While boutique cannabis shops in high socioeconomic regions of the GTA with White patrons are not seen as a detriment to the community.
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Your comments are 💯true, Debra! Despite the legalization of cannabis that has made corporations a lot of profit, the stigma that Black youth experience using continues. This stigmatization interweaves with anti-Black racism.
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I think Canadians are always comparing themselves to Americans, and gauge what they see a overt racism as ‘much worse down there’. When the media reports racism against Black people the framing is that it is an incident and not part of a larger systemic issue.
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You may remember learning about Ability Online in our November 2020 webinar, Cultivating (Online) Community for Youth. I wanted to share their platform for youth living with different abilities, MyAbility.ca.
This safe and secure online environment is designed for young people to socialize, make new friends, learn new skills, build confidence, and have fun. Members can connect with peers, share experiences, join discussions, explore content, and find mentors. (Users under the age of 18 can register with parental/caregiver consent, and users over the age of 18 can join the young adult community.) As someone living with a disability, I know that I would have appreciated connecting with others who had similar experiences when I was younger. Visit MyAbility.ca for details!
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If you work with youth living with different abilities, you may be interested in MyAbility.ca, a platform from Ability Online. This safe and secure online environment is designed for young people to socialize, make new friends, learn new skills, build confidence, and have fun. Members can connect with peers, share experiences, join discussions, explore content, and find mentors. (Users under the age of 18 can register with parental/caregiver consent, and users over the age of 18 can join the young adult community.) Visit MyAbility.ca for details.
You can also learn more about the work of Ability Online from our November 2020 webinar, Cultivating (Online) Community for Youth. 🙂
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Definitely, Caroline! Evaluation capacity is a big barrier to engaging in evaluation by too many youth programs. Two of the key findings from YouthREX’s Beyond Measure study that examined evaluation practices in youth organizations found that they do understand the benefits of evaluation and are enthusiastic about it but need evaluation processes and practices that can make evaluation less burdensome.
Let’s use this Community of Practice to share any processes and practices that make evaluation less burdensome.
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One of the biggest barriers to evaluation work can be a lack of capacity (e.g., time, resources, and staff). Check out this article by Carmen and Fredericks (2010) that examines capacity for evaluation in non-profit organizations.
Article Link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1098214009352361)
What are some barriers that your organization has experienced when it comes to evaluation?
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Hi all! I hope you have been enjoying the first couple of weeks of YouthREX’s certificate – Program Evaluation for Youth Wellbeing. Just checking in to see if anyone has any questions or comments about the course material or assignments thus far. If so, post them below! A reminder that you can also email me at caroline@youthrex.com.
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Exciting gig at OCAD U, learn more about it here https://tre.tbe.taleo.net/tre01/ats/careers/v2/viewRequisition?org=OCADU&cws=37&rid=2182
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This is great, thank you for sharing!
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As we continue to navigate the shifting challenges and demands of the pandemic, YouthREX continues to expand its collection of resources to respond to these shifts and to support your work with youth.
I wanted to highlight a few recent reports that may be of particular interest:
1) Hopeful Resilience: The Impacts of COVID-19 on Young Ontarians
Young Ontarians United shares findings from research with over 500 youth across the province and calls for youth-led solution-building.2) Change the Game: A Study Focused on Youth Sport Access, Engagement & Equity Factors in the Wake of the Pandemic
MLSE Foundation and the University of Toronto engaged almost 7,000 youth to understand sport and play-related access, barriers, and equity factors in the wake of the pandemic.3) Preventing a Lockdown Generation: A Plan to Support Canada’s Youth in Post-Pandemic Recovery
YWCA Canada and YMCA Canada outline challenges faced by youth, ages 18 to 30 years old, in light of the pandemic, and proposes policy responses to ensure youth recover and are resilient in the face of future crises.Check out these and other resources on our Knowledge Hub!
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This week, I reflected on our conversation with Liam and Jillian, summarizing four considerations to support young caregivers on REX Blog. We hope you’ll read and share your strategies and insights!
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Reflecting on the conversation that @kathleen and I hosted in June and the insights that Liam and Jillian so generously shared, I summarized four considerations to support young caregivers on REX Blog this week. Check it out!
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This is great! I will be sure to share!
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ICYMI, check out this conversation that @cyrilcromwell and I hosted about the importance of literacy learning that centres the cultures, histories, and identities of Black communities. This event was presented with The Reading Partnership on International Literacy Day, showcasing their literacy-focused program for children and families in the Kingston-Galloway-Orton Park neighbourhood of Scarborough, as well as the work of Black Girl’s Magazine, created by and for Black girls by Black Youth Write. We also featured an expert panel of insightful special guests and two amazing performances from award-winning spoken word artist, writer, and facilitator Amoya Reé. You can now watch and share the recording from our Knowledge Hub. 😄
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The Student’s Commission of Canada is establishing and facilitating a Youth Advisory Table that will help inform Ontario’s Child Welfare Redesign. Recruitment is currently underway to identify youth aged 18-25 with lived experience in or with the child welfare system to join the Youth Advisory Table.
The Youth Advisory Table is expected to meet virtually, on a bi-weekly basis, between October 2021 and May 2022 for approximately 7.5 hours per month, to provide their input and voice on the Child Welfare Redesign. Table members will be recognized through honoraria and/or other equitable compensation, as agreed upon by individual youth members to be the most appropriate and equitable type of compensation for their time. Youth will be able to advise/select the type of compensation that is best for their personal situation.
Interested youth are encouraged to reach out to the Student’s Commission of Canada (SCC) at their earliest convenience. If you would like to recommend a youth who may be interested in participating, or have any questions, please connect with SCC by email info@studentscommission.ca or on Instagram and Twitter.
Prospective table members will be invited to connect with SCC team members to learn more about this opportunity and the supports and recognition in place to support participation.
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Emerging Youth Consultancy is a forward-thinking youth-led consulting group partnering with organizations and research groups to increase youth engagement, governance, & inclusion.
“From making strategic decisions to developing your capabilities, EYC is here to support your needs. Using youth lived and living experience and a deep understanding of youth and adult allyship, your organization will receive real solutions to increasing meaningful youth engagement to improve organization impact.”
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Although his songs are not (yet?) featured on this playlist, I’m wondering if anyone has been listening to Cadence Weapon? His most recent album, Parallel World, was named the winner of the 2021 Polaris Music Prize for best Canadian album this week.
In his acceptance speech, he said, “If I won this, I wanted to announce that next year I’ll be using some of my resources to organize some voter registration events around the Toronto municipal election, as well as the Ontario provincial election because we need some changes to our leadership and we need to make things more equitable for people in this city to be able to vote. I also just want to take this time to mention that Justin Trudeau has worn Blackface so many times he can’t even remember how many times, and he was just given a third term. That’s exactly why I need to be making rap records that are political, that are about these subjects because that’s still a fact today.”
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A large part of evaluation is taking results and moA large part of evaluation is sharing the findings with other people, both internal and external to your program. What are great tips you have used or seen others using to share evaluation findings?
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I totally agree; when thinking about my own work and anti-racist journey, I find it is helpful for me to reflect on the systems in which I/we live. When we are navigating and live within social systems and structures that were made by and for cis, white men, we are going to internalize racist assumptions and ways of behaving without this necessarily being in our conscious awareness. Doing the difficult work to unlearn and relearn helps me in seeing what I didn’t see before and has allowed me to do better. The less I take for granted and the more I learn and question, the more I find myself able to engage my family, friends, and peers in anti-racist conversation and continue to do the work to raise awareness of and push back against anti-Black racism and other systems of oppression.
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I agree with this point! Anti-black racism has been present in the Ontario systems for so long that it is hard for people to recognize the problems in the system because it has just become the norm.
