South Huron's Manager of Community Services says council has now received a presentation on a Youth Engagement Strategy for the municipality. Scott Currie explains the objective of the strategy is to make the municipality more youth-friendly.
Currie says a couple of items were identified as a possible means for achieving that goal.
“A couple of initial items identified were to establish a youth council. Another one is to establish a Youth Volunteer of the Year award. And these are two items that council will consider as part of budget deliberations coming this fall,” he explained.
Currie says it also became clear in talking to young people they want more representation in decision-making and they want to become more involved.
He suggested, “They wanna become more involved. The logical solution there is to establish some sort of a youth council where they can receive information, they can advise, not only their peers, but maybe make a recommendation to council on how to view an item with a youth perspective.”
Currie adds they're hoping by making the community more youth-friendly more young people will be encouraged to stay in the community, or if they do leave, to eventually return to South Huron.