It's Not Too Late: Adolescent Resilience and Empowerment
April 2-3, 2009 - Harbour Tower Hotels - Victoria, BC
Co-sponsored by CYHRNet and the Centre for Youth and Society, this two-day event was an exciting opportunity for researchers, service agencies and all those with an interest in youth resilience.
The event featured keynote speaker Dr. Marc Zimmerman, Chair of the Department of Health Behavior & Health Education in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan as well as a variety of other speakers. It also featured claymation videos produced by the youth of the Aboriginal Next Steps Project. There was even a rap on the subject of resilience written by a youth from the Nanaimo Youth Services Association!
The event was very well received. Comments from the day included:
- I loved hearing the youth speak!
- This was a brilliant day which has sparked many thoughts/ideas for me to bring back to school!
- Great use of multi-media, videos, raps, very engaging
Agenda - Day 1 Day 2 ->
Introduction
Butch Dick, a Songhees Nation Artist, provided a Traditional Welcome to the event, and Anne Marshall, Director, Centre for Youth and Society gave an introduction to the conference.
Keynote Speaker
The Keynote speaker for day 1 was Dr. Marc Zimmerman from the University of Michigan. His presentation was entitled "Empowerment Theory and Adolescent Resilience, Applications for Prevention."
View Dr. Zimmerman's presentation: [.ppt]
Researcher Panel
A trio of child and youth health researchers from the University of Victoria followed with presentations. You can click on the links below to view the presentations:
- Dr. Deborah Begoray: Youth Health Literacy [.ppt]
- Dr. Gordon Miller: Youth as Co-Researchers.[.ppt
- Dr. Anne Marshall: School to Work Transitions [.ppt]
It's Not Too Late
Nanaimo Youth Services Association, represented by NYSA Director Steve Arnett and Nanaimo youth Sarah Boos, Dallas Hawkins, Thomas Hawkins, Charlene Lucier and Mike Schirmer followed with a presentation entitled "It's Not Too Late - Youth Talk About Resilience and Empowerment". This presentation even included a rap written and performed by youth Mike Schirmer!
You can read the lyrics to Mike Schirmer's rap, or even listen to it
NEED Crisis and Information Line
Aubrey Baldock followed with a presentation on the NEED Crisis and Information Line. The NEED Crisis line is a 24 Hour line staffed by professionally trained volunteers and run by YouthSpace.
View Aubrey Baldock's presentation: [.ppt]
A Sense of Place
Negin Naraghi of the Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Centre Society along with VIRCS youth Raad Al-Bayani, Celicia Blumenkrang and Arian Amin did a presentation entitled "A Sense of Place"
Girlz Group
Dr. Margaret Jackson from Simon Fraser University concluded the panel presentations of Day 1 with a presentation on the Girlz Group, a Participatory Action Strategy for Building Culturally Sensitive Programs for Aboriginal Young Women.
View Dr. Jackson's presentation: [.ppt]
It's Not Too Late!
This conference, a product of a huge collaborative undertaking between the Centre for Youth & Society and CYHRNet, was a wonderful opportunity for researchers, frontline workers, policymakers and all those interested in adolescent health to network, share ideas and learn more about adolescent resilience and empowerment.
Over 150 participants attended and presentations were given by a variety of researchers, agencies serving youth and Aboriginal communities and, perhaps most importantly, youth themselves.
Related links
- View additional conference information on the Centre for Youth & Society's website
- NEED Crisis and Information line (on the youthspace site)
- Songhees Artist Butch Dick
- Youth Empowerment Solutions (YES)
- Community Youth Development Coalition of British Columbia
- Nanaimo Youth Services Association
- Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Centre Society
- Office of the Representative for Children and Youth
- McCreary Centre Society
- Métis Nation of Greater Victoria
- Greater Victoria Child and Family Counselling Association
- Threshold Housing Society
- Boys and Girls Club of Greater Victoria
- Sooke Family Resource Society
- Vic to Sooke Youth Housing Network
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