I was invited as a guest speaker tonight at a youth forum held at the North York Council Chambers. It was neat to sit and talk on a microphone like a politician in the Council Chamber.
I did some individual follow-up consultations afterwards and really got the youth motivated. What a bright, enthusiastic bunch of teenagers. It really gives me hope that there are young people out there who will speak their mind.
Anyway, after doing my talk, I wanted to have a discussion.
I wanted to throw the question out to them in regards to their persoal barriers as youth and wanted to know what motivates them. And of course, what makes them tick. Why do they feel down? Why do they feel like doing some of the negative things they do.
And not surprising, I got some really blunt replies. There seems to be a general consensus of what youth have to face. Here are some highlights and some of my thoughts that came from listening to some of them speak:
- Youth feel that there they are definitely being judged because of their appearance and age. And most importantly, a lot of them have changed their names as to not bring attention to their race. In school, in resumes, in their workplaces... I find this to be sad and totally reacted to that with a long speech about self-dignity and racial diversity. It was really hard to listen to people talk about how they are judged immediately by their skin colour or ethnicity.
- Youth feel that there isn't enough to do. They talked about all the cutbacks and the cancellation of recreation programs. Rendering them to hang around, mill about and generally live a really bored life after a boring day of school. Some of their schools actually cut gym!
- Youth feel that there aren't enough practical and tangible solutions to their barriers. Their supposed mentors are the school system only cares about bureacracy, money and looking professional. All talk, no action.
- Social issues seem to be big with them. Homelessness, charities and all around community development was something they were all interested in. Which was great to hear. I gave them many resources for community involvement. And will be recruiting at least 100 of them to help me with a youth event I'm throwing in August.
- Youth are generally bored, angry, restless and need guidance. They feel let down by a lot of things and the pressures to make it somewhere really render them to not even want to try. No wonder so many youth have breakdowns and just... give up..
For me, the key to motivating youth is practicality. Logic. One-on-one help. I think the influence of youth on other youth is huge too. Word of mouth is the best way to get positive messages around. Violence comes from somewhere. Negative actions have to come from somewhere. And I think a lot of the crime and the shit that youth do "for fun" or "to rebel" really comes from a lack of mentorship. That can be in the form of teamwork, leadership opportunities, recreation, community awareness projects...
If they are left alone, they will stray and find their own paths. Some of those paths seem to be pretty extreme.
