By Lexi McFarlane, Times Chronicle
New ideas for communicating with the young generation were offered to Oliver Council earlier this week by the town’s two newly christened Youth Councillors.
At the April 27 Committee of the Whole (CoW) meeting, Council received a presentation from Nathaël Collerette-Reza, Senior Youth Councillor and Dallas Crawford, Junior Youth Councillor.
The Youth Councillors, whose terms run until the end of June, spoke to Council with the stated goals of bridging the communication gap between Council and the town’s youth, as well as uplift and represent the perspectives and needs of Oliver youth on municipal-level matters.
The presentation focused mainly on four different areas of need, as stated by the youth councillors. At the forefront was a lack of representation, with youths’ voices often not reaching Council on points of discussion, something Collerette-Reza alluded to from the start.
“Dallas (and I) strongly value being and feeling heard,” Collerette-Reza said. “We are here to keep the Town’s youth in the know, and allow opinions and views to be shared from (this) different age demographic.”
The lack of sufficient inclusion fuels a second area of need, that being a stronger sense of belonging. Without younger voices and perspectives being heard, Oliver youth feel detached from the decision-making that occurs.
One of the other areas noted was raising awareness amongst local youth of Council matters, especially those that affect them. They also said there needs to be a plan to motivate Oliver youth to engage with Council.
Four solutions to bridging these communication gaps were offered as part of the presentation.
An informal youth outreach session at South Okanagan Secondary School (SOSS) was suggested as an in-person method of communication. Such an event, it was noted, would best allow the concerns of Oliver youth to be directly heard, and then discussed at Council. This could take place sometime in the coming weeks.
Online channels of communication were also promoted, with social media outreach being a key idea of the Youth Councillors. Such outreach would involve creating youth-focused content for posting to the Town of Oliver’s social media channels. The other form of digital communication would be in the form of an online survey that SOSS students could fill out, and use to indicate their top priorities to Council.
A physical suggestion box was the other concept mentioned, to allow for the facilitation of ideas without needing to be online or attend the informal youth meetup.
Collerette-Reza said that, at the end of the day, communication is meant to be a two-way street, and that he and Crawford have the goal of strengthening that communication.
“We are committed to bringing the voice of Oliver’s youth to Council, and bringing Council’s work back to the youth. I encourage anyone… to share their concerns, whether you are a student, parent, guardian, or someone who cares about this community.”
Councillor Aimee Grice commended the work that went into the presentation, and noted that Crawford and Collerette-Reza are already doing a wonderful job of accomplishing their objectives.
“I was so impressed when I saw this; you guys have a really short amount of time to be able to do something, so I think this is the perfect size project to be able to accomplish your goals,” she said.
Grice also said Council was willing to support, though in which ways remain unclear.
“If you want any kind of a Council presence for any of the meetups – maybe that would discourage youth from coming, I don’t know,” Grice joked. “But if you feel it would be helpful, I’d love to be there, just to offer assistance.”
Councillor David Mattes echoed the approval from Council.
“There are four really great ideas there that you’ve come forward with,” Mattes said. “I really hope you’re successful in carrying them out.”
Collerette-Reza and Crawford welcome input and they can be reached through their Town of Oliver e-mails, at: [email protected], and [email protected].
