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The Independent, Canadian Statesman Weekender, Bowmanville, Saturday, April 9,1994 25 Children and Youth Seek Role in Shaping Their Own Future The children and youth of Ontario are demanding an active part in shaping shaping their own future. The provincewide provincewide Young Voices report, released March 29, during a news conference at the Premier's Council on Health, Well-being and Social Justice, says adults are failing to prepare young people for. the world that awaits them. Young Voices was prepared by the Ontario Coalition for Children and Youth (OCCY) - a youth-led organization organization committed to making the voices of young people heard by policy policy makers - for the Children and Youth Project of the Premier's Council. Council. The report is unique in that it documents documents the views of youth about the issues that concern them most. Discussion Discussion sessions were primarily closed to adults in order to ensure maximum comfort and candour. Young Voices is one of a series of consultative reports prepared for the Children and Youth Project. They are designed to improve young Ontarians' Ontarians' life chances and will culminate with specific recommendations in a milestone report from the Council to the Premier and the province in may 1994. Freedom to Speak To compile Young Voices' insightful insightful data, OCCY held 21 discus-' sion sessions with children under the age of 13 and youth between 13 and 25 all across the province, in the Fall of 1993. Participants included a representative representative and highly diverse sampling sampling of young Ontarians drawn from a variety of ethnic and racial communities, communities, economic circumstances and life situations, urban, rural, northern and southern communities, sexual orientations, orientations, and groups challenged by disabilities, disadvantage or HIV. Participants were asked to talk about the issues that affect them most and to suggest possible solutions to the problems they experience. Responses Responses were frequently blunt and very frank. State of Crisis "We were often surprised by what we heard," says Zenia Wadhwani, 22, a co-author of the report. A fourth year student at the University of Toronto, Zenia, who is an active member of OCCY, led many of the discussion groups. "Young Voices reveals that many of Ontario's youth and children are coping with serious issues on a daily basis including violence in schools, drug and alcohol abuse, racism, and economic and academic pressures that are contributing to worries about the future. And they give our education education system a failing grade in preparing preparing them for the real world," she says. "Participants also had a very clear sense of what needs to be done to fix these matters," adds Chung Tang, 22, co-author of the report. A recent university university graduate and fellow OCCY member, Chung notes that Ontario's young people, "want better guidance and assistance from their parents, teachers and society, and in particular, particular, they want their own voice to be heard in dealing with issues that affect affect them." A Voice in the Future In all the issues raised by the young people - education, jobs, racism, racism, welfare, violence, government, housing - there is a consistent outcry for a voice in decision-making. The children and youth made a number of suggestions ranging from having a seat on school boards and establishing establishing a Children and Youth Directorate, Directorate, to holding national youth forums forums and having a Youth Prime Minister in Parliament. "The overwhelming message from the children and youth of Ontario is that they want a say in all the issues that concern them, since they feel most adults don't understand what they're experiencing," says Zenia. The Néed for Survival Skills The report's more than 242 participants participants want society to provide them with survival skills including specific job and career planning that's in tune with economic realities, inteipersonal skills to cope with violence, racism and conflict, and a relevant school curriculum that addresses the diversity diversity of Canàdian culture. "The young people of Ontario are adamant in their desire to be involved in every decision that affects their future," future," says Children and Youth Project Project Co-Chair Marilyn Knox, Senior Vice-President, Corporate Affairs with Nestlé Canada. "It is clear from their comments in Young Voices that the systems and people that are supposed supposed to be helping them are not meeting their needs. The children and youth recognize that they are not being being prepared adequately for the future and they are demanding an opportunity opportunity to help fix what needs to be fixed." Parents Responsibilities Ontario's young people are also calling for better training in child rearing skills for their parents, the people they feel should be most responsible responsible for preparing them for the future. Young Voices' participants describe describe their parents as being out-oftouch out-oftouch with their children's lives. Some even call for the establishment of mandatory parenting courses. Ontario's children and youth say that teachers, counsellors, and government government are also out-of-touch and often often misguided in their attempts to help them. And that the mass media misrepresents the reality of the youth experience, consistently overemphasizing overemphasizing negative actions, and virtually ignoring positive initiatives. 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