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This one's for the kids: Conference aims to connect the leaders of tomorrow today

Organized by the GSPS education co-ordinator, 160 youth from diverse backgrounds brought together for a day of learning and sharing
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Shane Flamand shows his traditional dancing skills Tuesday at the Power of Connection Youth Leadership Conference held Tuesday at the Caruso Club. Darren MacDonald photo.

About 160 young people from a range of backgrounds gathered at the Caruso Club this week to learn how to be leaders and how people from different cultures can work and live together.

The Power of Connection Youth Leadership Conference was organized by Anna Maria Barsanti, Greater Sudbury Police's PAVIS (or Provincial Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy) education co-ordinator.

"The purpose of today is for us to build capacity for our 15-24 year olds, so about 10 community partners got together and we tried to figure out what was the best way to do it," Barsanti said Tuesday. "So a group of us sat down and said, what can we do?"

Anglophones, Francophones, members of First Nations, as well as people with other cultural backgrounds worked together at the day-long conference. Most were from Sudbury, but some came from the Sault, Manitoulin Island and Espanola areas.

"So we have a nice cross-section of northeastern Ontario," she said.

It was important to have diversity, Barsanti said, because that is how Sudbury is evolving. Connecting future leaders will help them work together as they grow older.

"Our demographics are changing, and if we don't help young people learn about their community, about what it looks like ... how do we teach them about the Canadian mosaic?” she said.

And if the good vibes from Tuesday's event are an indication, she said there's reason for optimism for the future.

"We had a traditional singer and dancer, and when one of the songs came up, four or five of the Indigenous young girls got up and before you knew it, almost everybody in the whole room was dancing together,” Barsanti said. “So it's about bringing our cultures together and understanding that Aboriginal people welcomed us and now we're all here. So let's get together and support one another and move forward."

Reece Waller, 15, a Lo-Ellen Park student, said Barsanti asked him to get involved after he met her during a tour of the police station. He ended up co-hosting the event.

"It's great that everyone is getting along,” Waller said. “It's wonderful. (I'd like to see) more community events like this in the future, where everyone gets together, talks and has a great time."

Joanne McQuiggan, executive director at Lions Quest Canada, the Centre for Positive Youth Development, gave a talk Tuesday morning about how where they live and who they are closest to affects what sort of person they will become as adults.

"We spent a lot of time talking about environments and the world they live in — where they get their support from, empowerment of young people, constructive use of time — really looking at the entire world around them and where to pull from so that they can live in a community that's ideal for them," McQuiggan said.

Groups of young people worked together to come up with what sort of environment would best help them develop as people.

"Each group came up with a representation of what an ideal community would look like for them, making sure we covered areas like support, empowerment,” she said. “They visualized that and they said this is what would be perfect for me. Each group was very unique, but the commonality was it was a safe and caring place for kids."

Barsanti said the day was so successful, they may make a few changes next time.

"We had such a strong turnout we're thinking next year maybe we'll do one just for Francophones and then we do one for Anglophones," she said.


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Darren MacDonald

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