{"id":27907,"date":"2020-11-06T11:40:30","date_gmt":"2020-11-06T16:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=27907"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:27:47","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T17:27:47","slug":"youth-aim-to-shake-up-civic-engagement-in-covid-19-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/youth-aim-to-shake-up-civic-engagement-in-covid-19-recovery\/","title":{"rendered":"Youth aim to \u201cshake up\u201d civic engagement in COVID-19 recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

COVID-19 has changed the world and, as we look ahead to what a post-virus world might look like, local youth are spending their downtime looking at ways to advocate for a meaningful recovery at all three levels of government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Future Majority, a grassroots organization spearheaded by younger Canadians \u2013 millennials and GenZs \u2013 have used this unusual time of working and learning at home to find their voice and will come together for a virtual town hall next week to connect the leaders of tomorrow with the decision-makers of today on the issues that matter to a fast-growing voting bloc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Future Majority is currently focused on a \u201cGreen & Just Recovery\u201d campaign, which aims to \u201cshake up Canadian politics in terms of our post recovery strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis really looks at taking a more sustainable and equitable approach to tackling issues such as climate change, racial inequality and mental health care,\u201d Future Majority’s Aisha O\u2019Gilvie tells The Auroran. \u201cWe have a volunteer team from York Region and we\u2019re kind of fed up with the response not only locally but federally in terms of the actions taken.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

York Region returning to Stage 2 of the Province\u2019s plan to re-open Ontario has only helped fuel their drive to have a lasting impact, says O\u2019Gilvie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their virtual Town Hall, which will be held November 12 at 6.30 p.m.is not the first roundtable they have spearheaded. A York Region event this past June brought a number of volunteers together and, working in tandem, they have fanned out on social media and through other channels to grow their numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGetting a group of like-minded people who have worked on past campaigns, and some people who have never heard of us but are getting more involved and engaged, especially in current times, was really the thing that got us all rolling,\u201d says O\u2019Gilvie. \u201cOne of the issues we\u2019ve specifically tried to emphasize are a lot of those issues that are on a wider-scale that align nationwide. We have been focused on those nationwide issues to attract greater attention, to attract more people, and also to highlight the unique situations that are currently happening in York Region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen the pandemic first hit, I don\u2019t think anyone had any anticipation of how long this would last. I think coming into this second-time-around we\u2019re really looking at addressing those key issues and really trying to narrow in on things that are important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Future Majority points to an Abacus Data poll from this past September that indicated nearly 70 per cent of young Canadians under the age of 30 want to see \u201cbold changes\u201d from governments coming out of the pandemic, including transitioning to a low-carbon economy to address climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further studies, they say, pointed to student mental health being in decline with more reported instances of depression, panic attacks and anxiety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCoupled with the threat of climate change, an economy damaged by COVID, and historic levels of student debt, it is no surprise the status quo is being questioned by Canadian youth,\u201d they say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this is something York Region organizers are hearing at the local level as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a time that regardless of whether mental health is your main priority, whether it is racial injustice, or economic troubles, I think the one thing we can all unite on is we\u2019re going through this for the first time and it\u2019s a very different situation from what we thought we would be in,\u201d says O\u2019Gilvie. \u201cLooking ahead, how are we going to get to a new normal? It is definitely not going to be similar to what it was pre-pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on Future Majority, including how to register for next week\u2019s Town Hall event, visit futuremajority.ca or www.facebook.com\/events\/1047457869014657.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong>
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COVID-19 has changed the world and, as we look ahead to what a post-virus world might look like, local youth are spending their downtime looking at ways to advocate for a meaningful recovery at all three levels of government. Future Majority, a grassroots organization spearheaded by younger Canadians \u2013 millennials and GenZs \u2013 have used […]<\/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-27907","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\/p3D2k4-7g7","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-16 12:29:54","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\/27907","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=27907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27907\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}