{"id":20168,"date":"2018-03-21T15:48:11","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T19:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=20168"},"modified":"2018-03-21T15:48:11","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T19:48:11","slug":"groups-encouraged-to-get-involved-to-help-aurora-secure-youth-friendly-designation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/groups-encouraged-to-get-involved-to-help-aurora-secure-youth-friendly-designation\/","title":{"rendered":"Groups encouraged to get involved to help Aurora secure \u201cYouth Friendly\u201d designation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Community groups throughout Aurora operate programs geared towards kids and teens through various ways, but getting on the same page in ensuring the needs of local teens are met will help Aurora secure a second designation as a \u201cYouth Friendly\u201d community.
\nThis Tuesday, March 27, the Town will hold the first of two information sessions for community groups and organizations on how they can get involved with Aurora\u2019s application in the Youth Friendly Communities recognition program.
\nThe program celebrates communities that recognize adolescents have different needs for play and activities than kids and adults, and the public session is intended to help groups work together as Aurora re-applies for the designation, which it first secured in 2016.
\n\u201cWe received silver designation in 2016 and a large part of that is the different play opportunities in Town \u2013 not just us, but any play provider in Aurora offering programs for youth,\u201d says Julie Stephenson, Youth Programmer for the Town of Aurora. \u201cThe [first designation] have actually done a great deal for us in terms of offering the programs they offer, but now as we get ready to reapply in 2019 we\u2019re really looking to make sure we\u2019re representing them correctly, we know what programs they offer, if they have any updates, and learn directly from them what information they have that can benefit this application.\u201d
\nPart of Tuesday\u2019s session \u2013 and a second session is scheduled for Wednesday \u2013 will include a presentation on Play Works, provider of the designation, and the criteria Aurora will need to meet in order for a second certification.
\n\u201cWhen we talk to the organizations, we\u2019re looking for not only the programs they offer, but anything that is part of their normal operating procedures that makes them a youth friendly organization,\u201d says Ms. Stephenson. \u201cIt could be anything from how they communicate with youth promoting their programs and that sort of face to face contact when they are operating their programs. It could be any policies or procedures that are put in place to really recognize the developmental needs of youth at that age and, in those programs, and it could even be how they support the community.\u201d
\nA designation such as this, she says, is important in showcasing the work that is done for youth within Aurora, along with the opportunities provided, as well as a way of seeing how Aurora measures up to other communities.
\n\u201cOne of the greatest results of doing this application is we get to highlight so many things in the community for youth themselves,\u201d she says. \u201cWe sometimes have youth who say, \u2018We had no idea there was this program, I had no idea I could apply for this scholarship,\u2019 and this is a great way to highlight what is available for youth. There are a wide variety of opportunities and what is really great is you\u2019ve seen in the last little while youth standing up and asking for an opportunity. There seems to be something that pops up to meet that need.
\n\u201cOne of the best examples I really love is our Youth Engagement Committee. We had a group of youth go to Aurora Town Council and let them know that they were interested in the opportunity and really wanted to get involved. Here we are today, I think we\u2019re four or five years into that and it is a thriving committee that is involved in youth issues. You really need to have a youth voice present, not only in their community but in this application.
\n\u201cWe have already started the process, running a few focus groups throughout the year on different topics, that our youth committee has identified as points of interest. We have run a health and wellness as well as an employment and life after high school session. Coming up in April, we have a transit and accessibility focus group, then we will also be releasing a survey we hope to make annual to the youth of Aurora and that should happen in the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Youth Friendly Communities Information Sessions will take place Tuesday, March 27, at 1 p.m. at the Aurora Family Leisure Complex, and again on Wednesday, March 28, at 6 p.m. in the same location. Both meetings will take place on Program Room C on the second floor. For more information, and to RSVP, email youth@aurora.ca.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Community groups throughout Aurora operate programs geared towards kids and teens through various ways, but getting on the same page in ensuring the needs of local teens are met will help Aurora secure a second designation as a \u201cYouth Friendly\u201d community. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5fi","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 14:06:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}