{"id":29632,"date":"2021-07-08T23:55:48","date_gmt":"2021-07-09T03:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=29632"},"modified":"2021-07-08T23:57:52","modified_gmt":"2021-07-09T03:57:52","slug":"gen-next-is-all-about-the-future-for-canadian-federation-of-university-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/gen-next-is-all-about-the-future-for-canadian-federation-of-university-women\/","title":{"rendered":"GEN NEXT is all about the future for Canadian Federation of University Women"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For nearly 65 years, the Aurora and Newmarket chapter of the Canadian Federation of University Women has been focused on empowering women\u2019s lives and promoting education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now boasting more than 220 members and becoming one of the network\u2019s largest clubs in Canada, the organization is focused firmly on the future with the launch of GEN NEXT, a new virtual community specifically designed for young women 18+.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GEN NEXT was officially launched by the Canadian Federation of University Women Aurora-Newmarket (CFUW) last Monday, June 28, with an online meet-and-greet and keynote address by business leader Leah Taylor Roy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur GEN NEXT vision is to empower women in their lives through friendship, through education, through outreach and advocacy,\u201d says CFUW\u2019s Grace Cantarutti. \u201cOur members are active in many disciplines: public affairs, working to raise social, economic and legal status of girls and women, as well as improving education, the environment, peace, justice and human rights. Our goal is to get younger women engaged in this vision that we all share.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GEN NEXT, she says, is focused on three key pillars: Learn, Achieve and Lead and they hope to only grow from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to develop an ambassador program and mentorship program with some of our more established members mentoring these young ladies as they move forward,\u201d says Ms. Cantarutti. \u201cWe have a lot of accomplished women in their careers from many walks of life and I believe being able to provide mentorship [is important]. I know as a former Guidance Department head I often heard young ladies say, \u2018I just wish I had a mentor, someone I could go to to help me as I go through my early stages of career and education.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The seeds for the GEN NEXT initiative were planted by just one such young woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CFUW has a charitable trust raising money to provide awards to secondary school students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of last year\u2019s award recipients said they wanted to stay engaged and involved in the group and that, in turn, sparked a conversation about just how to achieve that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re finding this is an opportunity to get some of the younger ladies in the community involved,\u201d says Ms. Cantarutti. \u201cHopefully our girls are learning as well through our speaker series and attendance is one of our measurable goals. If at the end we see them leading and taking on new projects that are of interest to them and developing new skills, new projects, events and interest groups, then we will know we\u2019ve probably been met with some success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CFUW hopes to meet monthly and have speakers lined up that will speak to such varying subjects as wellness and self-care, mental health, managing finances, and how to prepare for success in the job market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur tagline is, \u2018Do you want to make a difference?\u2019 and I think that is going to be the focus. We want these [young women] to be part of a vibrant conversation around change and having read their applications for these awards, these are all young women who definitely have the skills already to make change in their communities. That\u2019s the pitch for potential new members: \u2018Do you want to make a difference and do you want to be a voice of change?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GEN NEXT is just one of several ongoing initiatives of the CFUW. In addition to their focus on education, members recently hosted a Care-to-Share dinner and virtual cooking class where more than 130 Federation members, members of the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Centre, and community members at large purchased meals that included a $10 food bank donation benefiting the Aurora Food Pantry, King Township Food Bank and the Newmarket Food Pantry, each of which received a donation of $500 from the cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFood insecurity has had an impact on the residents of York Region, so we felt compelled to support the families who struggle to put good food on the table because of layoffs and the economic downturn caused by the pandemic,\u201d said CFUW Aurora-Newmarket Social Committee Chair Carolynn Schiller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s Care-to-Share dinner was once again held remotely and featured a three-course meal and lessons on French cuisine led by Chef Martial of Le Brehandaise Market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe support and generosity made this event a great success \u2013 it was the perfect way to end our year,\u201d said Anne Marie Devine, Communications Chair for the Group. \u201cWe appreciate how our members and the community rallies behind our fundraising events to support projects like this as well as our scholarship program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more on the Canadian Federation of University Women Aurora\/Newmarket, as well as GEN NEXT, visit cfuwauroranewmarket.com.<\/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":"

For nearly 65 years, the Aurora and Newmarket chapter of the Canadian Federation of University Women has been focused on empowering women\u2019s lives and promoting education. Now boasting more than 220 members and becoming one of the network\u2019s largest clubs in Canada, the organization is focused firmly on the future with the launch of GEN […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":29608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/2021-07-08-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-7HW","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 10:45:10","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\/29632","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=29632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}