English-speaking youth from Quebec City, Lévis welcome at Youth Forum
Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
editor@qctonline.com
Provincewide youth civic participation organization Youth 4 Youth Québec (Y4Y) is seeking young people aged 16-30 from the English- speaking community of the Capitale-Nationale region to participate in its annual youth forum in Montreal on Wednesday, March 19.*
The free day-long event at the Coeur des Sciences pavilion at the Université du Québec à Montréal, held under the theme “Inform, Engage and Empower,” will give teens and young adults the chance to meet other young anglophones from around the province and discuss issues facing English- speaking youth, including outmigration, media consumption and how they identify as citizens of Quebec, Canada and their local communities. The day will end with an in- formation fair featuring civic participation and career guidance organizations, health and social services agencies and an exhibition by young English- speaking artists.
“Through consultations and research, we know that English-speaking young people are often less informed than we’d like them to be about the information, the people and the resources available to them in Quebec,” said Y4Y executive director Adrienne Winrow. “At Y4Y, we always seek to inform our English-speaking youth community in a non-partisan way about various issues … and ways to get more involved in their local communities, but also in the wider society.”
Winrow said participants can expect “a warm and welcoming space where youth are the main event and their voices being heard is the main goal.”
During the panel discussions, Winrow said “we’ll be talking about the democratic deficit. We’ll be talking about identity and all the forms that it takes, particularly in youth culture. We’ll be talking about media consumption – how do people get their news these days? How important is it to them to get news? Do they make distinctions about sources and the veracity of the information they’re receiving?”
Panels will feature high school, college and university students and young professionals from around the province, and interaction between panellists and other participants will be encouraged. Winrow said she hopes the forum will start conversations about civic participation and belonging among young anglophones. About 300 youth from several regions of Quebec, including Montreal, the Eastern Town- ships, the Gaspé and the Lower North Shore, are expected to attend.
“Young people who are already engaged, who are think- ing about maybe joining the student union or becoming president of their club at school, if they’re at that level on the ladder of engagement, the Youth Forum can be a way for them to think about how they could push it further, be- cause there will be youth there who have achieved a great deal of things in their lives as English-speaking youth here in Quebec. If a student is less engaged, maybe because they feel, as many young people do, that they … don’t have a seat at the table in decision-making circles, [they can] come to the Youth Forum and see that that’s not true. This Youth Forum is for everybody … we don’t want anyone to feel like it’s not for them.”
Participants will also be offered breakfast and lunch. “We want it to be a free, fun and accessible day … a meeting of the minds,” said Winrow.
It’s not too late to sign up! To register for the Y4Y Youth Forum or learn more, visit y4y-quebec.org/youth-forum-2025.
*A previous version of this story said the Youth Forum was scheduled for March 15. March 19 is the correct date.