The Oxford County Youth Strategy

Background

The Oxford County Youth Strategy (OCYS) is a one-year, county-wide endeavor that intends to give youth a resounding voice in the matters that are important to them. It will develop a youth-driven, comprehensive plan to bring youth issues to the forefront of the community agenda, and engage youth in planning and decision making processes. The strategy will identify and prioritize the issues of greatest importance to Oxford County youth ages 12 to 30, and provide detailed actions to address these issues. The actions will be developed collaboratively by youth and service providers, and youth will direct a series of forums to both inform and engage the community in collaborative solutions.

Inspired by the results of the United Way's 'Community Matters' consultations (see www.unitedwayoxford.ca for more information), the OCYS responds to the community's identification of youth as a priority issue. It is a co-operative effort that includes representation from a diversity of sectors, such as employment and training, education, arts and culture, and justice. The OCYS builds on the growing success of existing collaborative models across the County, such as the Community Youth Action Committee in Woodstock, the Ingersoll Youth Action Committee and Tillsonburg's Mayor's Roundtable on Youth and the Voice of Youth.

The strategy's guiding principles include the conviction that:

• Youth are a valuable resource;
• Youth are a priority to be resourced; and
• Youth are essential to decision-making.

Benefits

The benefits of the OCYS will be widespread, throughout the county and across stakeholder groups.

Youth will benefit from:

• Opportunities to influence change in their own community;
• A sense of empowerment, achieved through contributing to the decisions that directly impact them;
• A sense of belonging, through feeling 'heard' and responded to by their community;
• Opportunities to develop new skills in areas such as leadership, presentation, group facilitation, data compilation and report writing, marketing and Internet communications;
• Career exploration and counselling, as well as potential job opportunities; and
• Improved access to information regarding services that matter to them.

Service providers will benefit from:

• Information for use in service delivery planning to address the service needs of all youth;
• An updated service inventory for use in referring youth to available services;
• Improved opportunities for service coordination and collaboration through service mapping and gap analysis; and,
• Information for use in leveraging available funding.

The Oxford County community will benefit from:

• Opening opportunities for youth champions;
• Increased awareness of youth issues;
• Increased awareness regarding youth's positive attributes;
• Improved civic responsibility among community youth;
• Informed decision making for youth issues; and,
• An updated service inventory for parents, community leaders, politicians, etc.

Approach

A broad range of County youth ages 12 to 30 will be invited to participate in the OCYS, and will be drawn from schools, employers, service providers and youth groups in cities, towns and rural areas. Youth will have a variety of opportunities to voice their thoughts, opinions and values through a variety of methods including:

• A survey;
• Group discussions;
• Individual interviews;
• Written, audio or video compilations; and
• Online strategies.

Research and project co-ordination will include the use of Co-active Coaching techniques, which assume that the youth are experts in their own lives and that they have the answers about what is important to them etc.The coaching method will inspire creativity and extract answers from our youth experts, facilitating exceptional empowerment and buy-in to the process.

Results

Anticipated results of the OCYS include:

• Prioritized youth issues and corresponding actions based on quantitative and qualitative research data taken from a broad spectrum of County youth;
• Youth trained and experienced in community planning and decision making processes;
• Collaborative solutions generated by youth and service providers;
• A planning document and service inventory to support service providers, community leaders and youth;
• Information to help service providers maximize resources through improved coordination and reduced duplication; and,
• A series of youth-driven and educational and awareness-raising forums.

For More Information Contact:

Natalie Surridge
Community Employment Services
Woodstock, On
N4S 3E7
ph. (519) 539-8161 ext.291