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The Regent Park Youth Collective Discusses Youth Civic Engagement
By Dawar Naim
(Dawar is a volunteer journalist with the Focus Media Arts Centre)
Radio Regent is a 24-hour, public access radio station in the heart of the Regent Park community. The station is managed by the Focus Media Arts Centre. One of the weekly shows that is produced on Radio Regent is the 4GetAboutIt! Youth Collective.
In this episode of Radio Regent’s 4GetAboutIt! The youth collective invited Adelle Sium to be a guest on the show. Adelle is from Vancouver and has recently received a B.A. in Political Science at Simon Fraser University. She also is a first generation Eritrean Canadian and hopes to utilize her privileges and skills to empower refugees and asylum seekers. Adelle was invited on the show as representative of the Simon Fraser University's Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, where she just completed her work as a Dialogue and Research Assistant.
Part of the work of the Centre for Dialogue is dedicated to strengthening Canadian Democracy and Adelle and the youth collective discussed the recent elections and the barriers faced by young voters. The show also discussed the disconnect between youth and politics.
According to Adelle, if you look at the communications from various political parties, none of the platforms engaged real youth issues and thus youth turnout at voting was low, and if continues, will decreased gradually over time.
They also spoke about the various all candidate’s meetings and debates, and how political parties utilize them for their own agendas and not for real debates about issues. Green Party leader Annamie Paul's resignation was also discussed by the youth collective and how the experience she had might discourage future BIPOC members from entering politics and taking on senior positions.
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FOCUS Media Arts Centre (FOCUS) is a not-for-profit organization that was established in 1990 to counter negative media stereotypes of low income communities and provide relevant information to residents living in the Regent Park area and surrounding communities.
We seek to empower marginalized individuals and under represented communities to have a voice, through the use of professional training, mentorships and participatory based media practices that enable the sharing of stories, experiences and perspectives on relevant matters and issues. In brief our mandate is to empower marginalized individuals and under-serviced communities to have a voice and tell their own stories.
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