A Prince Albert youth advocacy organization wants to put deserving young residents in the spotlight as part of the Communities Building Youth Futures (CBYF) project.
CBYF Prince Albert is asking for nominations that highlight youth who demonstrate positive leadership, resilience, and commitment to the community. Those contributions will be highlighted on the City of Prince Albert electronic billboard and social media as Community Change Makers.
“We wanted to create the opportunity for the community to receive the gift that the youth have been providing to our community, and to give them that recognition,” CBYF coordinator Alex Powalinsky said.
“We want youth to feel a sense of belonging and connection to our community, and for people to see the youth in our community as an asset.”
Powalinsky said there are plenty of opportunities to honour youth in Prince Albert, but they mostly focus on sports or academics. Ideally, she’d like to see recognition for residents who have shown leadership in other areas.
“We want to be able to highlight the youth who are cycle-breakers, the youth who are the first people in their family to go to university, or the youth who are behind the scenes, volunteering at a lot of community events to try and increase opportunities for other youth,” she explained. “A lot of those successes go unnoticed or uncelebrated.”
CBYF is entering the second year of the five-year project. Powalinsky said they spent the first year recruiting a youth leadership table to get their perspective. Nominating youth for public recognition was one of the main recommendations that came out of those discussions.
“We just really look forward to seeing the nominations come from the community, and to be able to feature as many youth as possible,” she said.
Nominees must be between the ages of 14 and 30 to be nominated. To nominate someone, visit http://cbyfpa.ca. The nomination period closes on Nov. 30.
The CBYF was kick-started by the Prince Albert Urban Indigenous Coalition, the Community Networking Coalition, and the West Flat Citizens Group. The project is funded by the Learning Branch, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) with further support from the Tamarack Institute.