The future of a community rests in the hands of its youth, and volunteer organizer Maddy Smith wants to help ensure youths in Centre Wellington have a voice in the important decisions that affect their future.
Smith, 24, has taken on the role of coordinating the Centre Wellington Youth Council, open to any interested young people between the ages of 13 and 18 who want to open communication and offer input on community planning and projects relevant to their demographic.
“It’s been shown that if youth are engaged and involved in their community, it actually limits acts of vandalism and crime, because vandalism is just done out of boredom … so having them engaged at the top level gives them a sense of involvement in their community,” Smith said.
“Whether it is deciding to build a new park or to building a new subdivision, youth should have the opportunity to be involved at the planning level.”
She added, “Sometimes they aren’t aware of the many things that do happen here that will impact them.”
She said she believes the creation of a council is important not just for the immediate future, but long term.
“There is a huge drain of 20-somethings not coming back to Centre Wellington after post-secondary school and to me, it’s because they don’t have a voice at the municipal level to make decisions,” Smith said, adding there isn’t anything for young people to come back to.
Smith takes her call to action from her advisory role with a provincial initiative to give youth a voice at the provincial level.
“We are an advisory board at the provincial level, so if a ministry is to create a policy or question operation roles, this board has the chance to offer feedback,” she said.
Representing youth by identifying needs and supports through improvements or real life experiences helps guide decision-making policies at the provincial level.
“Part of my role is to take what I have learned back to my community, making sure that I am walking the talk and making sure I am helping youth in my own community get their voice heard, if not at the provincial level, than at the local level,” she said.
Smith recognizes rural communities tend to be under-serviced and she hopes youths from beyond the Fergus and Elora core will take part, as different regions of the municipality have different concerns.
“I want to push for youth to be involved and engaged in their community; to let them know there is a place where they can be heard,” Smith said. “I just want to start to infuse youth into the community.”
Looking to the example in Guelph, Smith sees the positive outcome of this type of group.
“Guelph has a great youth council,” she said, noting that group does things like help fundraise for community projects and speaks to issues that keep youth engaged and informed.
“Youth are smart and if they are passionate about it and they’ll do the research and do the work,” Smith said. “Youth are extremely creative and innovative. To not involve them is selling our community short, really.”
In the early stages, the volunteer group will focus on brainstorming the kinds of projects and policies they would like to be involved in.
Part of that will include relationship building with Centre Wellington’s municipal council.
“We will have to consider how do we engage the Centre Wellington council and how do we get them to realize that we are a worthwhile voice? How do we get them to partner with us as peers at the decision-making table?” Smith said.
“I really think youth should have a voice in any decision in the community. They are the future and they’ll have to live with whatever we decide now.”
The Centre Wellington Youth Council meets next on March 20 at 4:30pm at Box Social on Geddes Street in Elora. The plan is to meet monthly meeting at different venues throughout Centre Wellington.
For information contact maddy@sharingelora.ca.
