Start A Youth Council

STARTING A YOUTH COUNCIL

Youth Councils are often started for the local community to come together for a common vision, promote activities, services enabling youth to become successful in education and the workplace and become leaders in their community.

Youth Councils often:

·        Build community awareness and demonstrate leadership.

·        Discuss problems that affect youth.

·        Coordinate youth activities in the community.

·        Influence other community members including those with youth funds and services.

·        Address specific needs of youth in the community, and many others.

Steps to starting a Youth Council:

·        Determine an age restriction for members in the council, ex. 12-20, 15-30, 15-35.

·        Determine a geographical restriction for your members – ex. Limit the council to one town, or a 30 kilometre radius.

·        Recruit members through schools, employment, local youth centres, provincial youth centres, etc.

·        Determine if you would like your Youth Council to me elected. If so, create nomination forms and provide them to places that where you have recruited members. Pick a day for nominations to be submitted, and pick a day and location for voting to occur.

·        Ensure you have a structure to your youth council. This can include a Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and other positions.

·        Ensure a time for meetings, and ensure they occur often, ex. Once a month, twice a month, etc.

You can also work through your local town council:

·        Make an appointment to meet with a councillor from your local town council.

·        Determine which councillor will be willing to support the youth council.

Creating a Constitution:

All organizations should have a constitution which outlines their missions, membership, nominations and voting process, meeting times and locations and commitment levels. A few things that should be included in a constitution are:

·        A mission statement and a set of goals.

·        The structure of the youth council – including executive positions, number of youth on the board, etc.

·        Membership of the youth council – including the executive positions and any committees you want to create, ex. A committee for planning youth activities.

·        Operations of the youth council – including how frequently members will meet, the number of meetings in one year, the location of meetings and time frame in which committee members will serve, ex. When elected, a committee stays intact for one year.