A local councillor wants young people to have a bigger voice in Chatham-Kent.
Councillor Brock McGregor's motion, which calls for staff in Community Attraction and Promotion to investigate and report back to council by June 18 on the requirements and potential benefits of creating a CK Advisory Group, was unanimously approved Monday night.
It is reported that only 22% of those surveyed in the 2017 Chatham-Kent to the Power of Young People survey feel that the Municipality of Chatham-Kent values the contributions of young people to the community.
McGregor says this is a step to make sure that an important group in the community is recognized and the municipality has their input when making decisions.
"The intent is to give them a platform and then allow them to decide what that contribution is going to look like -- to give them some latitude as far as what they want to focus on, how they want to contribute opinion to council, and how they want to contribute within the community," he explains.
McGregor says he thinks there are opportunities for collaboration with the Chatham-Kent Community Strategic Planning Committee and the Chatham-Kent Age Friendly Advisory Committee to push forward some things that are important to youth in the community.
"I think that there's a real vacuum there where we can get some important feedback from that demographic and that's a big part of CK Plan 2035 and part of our goals for retention and attraction of residents," he says.