The Youth Outreach Team brought energy and youth-focused creativity to the civic election community outreach program. The team members' fresh ideas and infectious enthusiasm had a positive effect on the entire outreach team. The participants provided innovative ideas and presented the messages in a way that captured and held youth attention. We could not have reached youth as effectively without the Youth Outreach Team's ideas and participation.

Marg Coulson
Deputy Chief Election Officer
Elections Office

I had a BLAST working with my peers to develop a community that was about youth. This way youth will not lean over into drugs, violence and discrimination. At first I thought of a focus group as sitting a large table and talking, we did talk, but in a large circle, and it was fun talking about what we (as youth) wanted to see in a community. We also interacted, by skits and icebreakers, with one another to come up with more ideas. I had so much fun and this experience was Awesome (with a capital A). It's a memory I will cherish, filled with fun and laughter!

Kevin Ram
high school student
Participant, Get Out! initial focus group

The YOT is an absolute necessity at the city. I think every city should have one. There has been a YOT presence at most youth org. driven events in Vancouver and they have connected a lot of people as well. Hopefully they will remain a TEAM and not get whittled down to one or two token youth. Daina is a great addition for the first nation's communities to have access.

Joah Lui
Access to Media Education Society

I was so excited to hear that the city had taken the initiative to try and get youth more involved through creating the Youth Outreach Team. This has been a very innovative and progressive move by the city. Youth have just as much right to be involved in civic activities as any other citizen of this city and the fact that the council members and bureaucrats of Vancouver were able to understand this is a huge step towards a more inclusive community. The short interactions I have had with the YOT has been nothing but pleasurable. All the members of the team a friendly, outgoing and extremely helpful, and I hope to be able to interact with them on a more regular basis in the future. It was inspiring to meet young people that have so much conviction to help other young people achieve their potential.

Paula Martz
UBC student

I just want to congratulate Lanny and the Youth Outreach Team for coordinating a fantastic City of Vancouver Youth Awards event. The tireless work and effort paid off with the huge smiles on everyone's faces as they saw their name on the Wall of Fame.

It was great to see and meet so many youth, who in their own way have made themselves better people and contributed back to the community. Reading and hearing about their accomplishments, and talking to them in person, re-emphasizes the positive impact and contributions that youth have. Identifying and promoting the positive influences and outcomes of youth is imperative. Getting youth recognised for their personal and team achievements is an integral part of the work that we do.

Choosing the final winners must have a been an incredibly difficult task as there were so many phenomenal candidates.

While awards are not the reason why we do our work, it gives everyone something new to strive for...

With the success of the event, I am sure we will have to look for a much bigger space next year!!!!

Thanks for everything...

Tom Higashio
Britannia Community Centre

Just wanted to express my congratulations and admiration for the outstanding efforts that you put into youth week and the CoV Awards Ceremony. You made people feel good about themselves, their work and their City – so I hope you're feeling good about yourselves. And get some rest this week, eh?

Mark Gifford
Program Director
Vancouver Foundation

Thanks Debbie and congratulations on a successful Youth Awards.

Janice Douglas
Vancouver Public Library

Hi all of you fine people

Your [Council] report was excellent and so was your presentation! Great work guys, it is such a pleasure to be involved with you!

Sheila Davidson
Former Child & Youth Advocate

...The important thing was that it was entertaining! There's nothing worse than a boring ceremony so I commend you all for the organization and entertainment.

Yvonne Kong
Award Nominee
2005 C.o.V. Youth Awards

YOT has lots of enthusiasm, is knowledgeable of youth groups and are a good resource to use in public involvement initiatives.

City Staff
Course Participant, "Planning Effective Public Processes"
City of Vancouver

It is my impression that the Youth Outreach Team... are in a unique position where they are on the "inside" and help by connecting youth groups to City processes.

Anonymous
Youth Interview

I really feel that having the YOT as part of the City government is an effective reminder to politicians that youth issues must be considered as serious and meaningful. Their presence helps to legitimize the work of the youth community and provide institutional support for the youth organizations.

Staff Member
Environmental Youth Alliance

[YOT helps in] raising student awareness on ways to get involved beyond student district, and the importance of including youth input into City processes.

Council Member
Vancouver District Student Council

YOT great at getting youth to the table at the City and making it as meaningful as possible.

Jeff Brooks
Director
Social Planning

YOT is really good at connecting to youth, and distribution of information and material.

Staff Member
kinex Youth Initiative

YOT is great at making themselves available to City staff when it is needed.

Alison McEachern
City Clerks
City of Vancouver

A strength of YOT is their ability to influence City staff, to build relationships and encourage shifts in working practices.

Donald MacPherson
Coordinator, Drug Policy Program
City of Vancouver

I have never been turned down for assistance by the Youth Outreach Team.

Baldwin Wong
Multicultural Social Planner
City of Vancouver

...Great advice was offered to senior staff on how to approach youth and to involve them in the election process.

Marg Coulson
Deputy Chief Election Officer, Elections Office
City of Vancouver

YOT was able to give a youth perspective and made me think about the language I use to speak to youth. They gave me a language to use. I would not have been as well received by the youth if the Youth Outreach Team and not been working on the project with me.

Jag Senghera
Coordinator, Anti-Graffiti Strategy
City of Vancouver

[YOT connects] us to something bigger than the youth community - getting involved in City processes is very important to us.

Youth, 17
Participant
Get Out! initial focus group

If I had to describe the Youth Outreach Team in 3 words, I would say that they are: CONVENERS, CONVEYORS and CONNECTORS.

Nathan Lusignan
Former Member
Youth Outreach Team

YOT is working towards making a change in the system. They build on the theory of youth engagement and translate it into successful projects.

Lanny Jimenez
Member
Youth Outreach Team

Hi Brian,

To you and your team – nice work! You rock!.... Or is that too old an expression?

Jacquie Forbes-Roberts
General Manager, Community Services Group
City of Vancouver

Feedback Missing Source Details

The Youth Outreach Team is open to new ideas and working with staff.

YOT is very supportive and appreciative of our organizations work. They connect us to working with youth and the City and keep us on the radar.

The Youth Outreach Team is a positive and energizing force. There is a high level of energy, commitment and willingness of many to see this expand.

YOT plays the unique role of translator between the City and community youth organizations. YOT helps the two to speak the same language.

...the role of YOT [is] to act as a link between youth and [the] City. They do this well.

...Sometimes the Youth Outreach Team would come to me for advice on a project. This improved our relationship and I felt linked in to what YOT was doing, and in turn, would go to them to include youth.

CYS team members have always been very supportive and inclusive in working with the Vietnamese Youth development program.

Also been a great source of information and referral and likewise have connected other agencies/organizations to the Vietnamese youth program.

Team members are awesome! Make efforts to attend events at BYRC, provide opportunities for involvement to many of our youth, and have been able to provide some financial support for some events/projects.

YOT responds quickly and answers questions to the best of their knowledge.

I like working with the YOT. They are not stuffy. They are advocates. They are part of the youth community. They are building a presence for city government in our communities which has not existed before. Hopefully they will affect as much change inside city hall as outside.

Some of the Team members are very skilled and understand the barriers and realities on both sides. It makes it easier to work with people who know where you are coming from. Our department sometimes works differently than others and we have different needs.

Overall I think that YOT is extremely positive for politicians to have meaningful involvement with young people.

The launch event for YOT at City Hall was pretty astounding. Never before had anything like that happened. It definitely made an impression. It was risky to present the way did for council - but it worked very well. The youth are very articulate and great representatives of the issues. It definitely made an impact on everyone there.

YOT members had connections to the community prior to joining the Youth Outreach Team. This was a good opportunity to stay connected and have access to groups that others may not be able to access so easily.

[YOT's] Outreach to specific youth groups very successful in raising the profile of YOT and informing youth in Vancouver on ways to get involved.

Very successful in connecting staff to youth and to get youth on advisory committees.

[YOT has the] ability to connect youth from one community to broader youth community.

Follow-up with YOT is easy and it helps to ensure that youth have a voice in decisions.

YOT pushes [limits] within the City. On projects, such as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, YOT heard a lot of "you have to do it this way" and YOT asked "why"? Innovative activities like spoken word in council chambers happened and subsided some of the fears from council around a different format.

I like the attitude of the Youth Outreach Team. They work collaboratively and should continue to do so. Taking on the issue of 'youth' in the City of Vancouver is too much to take on alone.

For the Arts Policy, YOT did a lot of outreach and spread the word out to the community in order to have representation. Using the City of Vancouver Youth Outreach Team name really helps to get people to buy in and get them involved.

Networking within the youth community is fantastic!

YOT saves us time when we need to connect to Vancouver youth.

YOT does well in linking services to others and helping youth organizations connect to work with youth and to work on City projects.

YOT is good at connecting us with schools and other City structures that we normally would not be able to access or have great difficulty in doing so. If the Youth Outreach Tea is recommending you it is as good as having City Hall give you the okay and others within the City will work with you with more confidence.

YOT... has allowed me to represent both workplaces at the city level which I think is invaluable. At the networking level, and at the institutional support level, I think that YOT has helped to raise awareness of youth issues within the city and to connect people and organizations to the city councilors and structure. The improvement to accessibility is tangible...

...CYS is involved in all things youth related. I think this gives the team a very clear and knowledgeable sense of everything that is happening in the youth world, which is helpful to front line workers like myself who depend on [YOT] for info., resources etc. The YOT [has the] ability to make connections and build awareness of opportunities for engagement, locally, city-wide, nationally, and to link youth to innovative projects.