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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, M ay 26 ,2 02 2 | 32 Leading up to the June 2 provincial election, Metro- land reached out to mem- bers of its Diversity and In- clusion Community Advi- sory Committee, inviting them to write about an im- portant election issue. This column is part of this ini- tiative. It's not easy being 22 in 2022. Over the last two years, young people have experi- enced the disproportion- ate impact of the econom- ic, social and health conse- quences of the COVID-19 pandemic. It's a tale as old as time. During crises, communi- ties experiencing margin- alization such as young people face the brunt of the negative impacts. Take for example, men- tal health. A recent CAMH study found that over half of the young people sur- veyed felt depressed about the future because of CO- VID-19 and over one-third felt the pandemic severely impacted their mental well-being. Furthermore, a report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) found that hospital- izations due to eating dis- orders for girls between the ages of 10 to 17 in- creased by nearly 60 per cent. It doesn't stop there. The economic fallout of COVID-19 has had unprec- edented impacts on young people. During the pandemic, 24 per cent of young people were not in employment, education, and training (NEET), the highest rate in two decades. This doesn't bode well for the future as the 'economic scarring' of this time can have long- lasting effects. Given the situation, what do youth need? As I shared last year in the Preventing a Lock- down Generation in Cana- da report I co-authored; our country's recovery will be incomplete without addressing the needs of young people. And they are not sitting idly by. Youth have been or- ganizing and vocal about what they need. Youth-led advocacy groups like Toronto Youth Cabinet, Ontario Under- graduate Student Alliance and Young Ontarians Unit- ed have been calling for a range of interventions to support youth prosperity, from investing in youth employment to establish- ing student mental health days to increasing OSAP to providing free menstrual products at all post-sec- ondary institutions. There are also pro- grams being delivered to support the health and well-being of diverse youth such as Plan International Canada's The Power With- in and the Substance Abuse Program for Afri- can Canadian and Carib- bean Youth at CAMH. For Ontario to prosper, young people need to suc- ceed. This election repre- sents a once-in-a-genera- tion opportunity to uplift young people in Ontario and unlock our collective prosperity. When you go to the bal- lot box in June - make youth prosperity and well- being a priority. Be sure to ask candidates vying for your vote about what they intend to do to push youth issues to the top of the pub- lic policy agenda. Because when young people have what they need to thrive, that benefits us all. Anjum Sultana is the Director of Youth Leader- ship and Policy Advocacy at Plan International Canada and is a Fellow with the Public Policy Forum. Sultana is also a member of Metroland's Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee. UNLOCKING YOUTH PROSPERITY NEEDS TO BE AN ELECTION ISSUE OPINION THE PROSPERITY AND WELLBEING OF YOUTH IN ONTARIO NEEDS TO BE AT THE FOREFRONT OF THE UPCOMING PROVINCIAL ELECTION, SAYS ANJUM SULTANA ANJUM SULTANA Column SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER AT INSIDEHALTON.COM