Youth Mentorship Project

Last year, FINALY! partnered with the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNET) to deliver a Youth Mentorship Program devoted to strengthening engagement of youth in Community Economic Development. CCEDNET is a member-driven organization that seeks to increase the scale and effectiveness of community economic development (CED) - helping organizations and individuals strengthen their communities and create solutions to local needs. Their membership is made up of community-based organizations, co-operatives, social enterprises, practitioners, active citizens, researchers, and other organizations from every region of the country. Their vision is that the Network will strengthen community economic development in urban, rural, northern and Aboriginal communities across Canada, and contribute to better social, economic and environmental conditions at the local level. FINALY! has been a member of CCEDNET for several years and has partnered in several projects over the years including hosting the annual CCEDNET National conference in St. John’s in 2007.

For the project, we trained eight (8) volunteer mentors from rural Newfoundland and Labrador in an intensive training program designed by FINALY! core staff. Each volunteer mentor held sessions in their respective areas from September to March ’09. The training program was developed using the resources from the Learning Network, other national participants and in house knowledge. Session topics ranged from

• skills development

• capacity building

• career readiness

• networking

• financial management

• life transitions,

• youth entrepreneurship

• volunteerism

• And More!

FINALY! is seeking funding to continue this highly successful project - hundreds of youth across the province were directly impacted!