Bringing ideas to life
Young people come together at second annual YDAY event to connect, collaborate and contribute to the future of P.E.I.
Melissa Trinh is tired of hearing about the laziness of today’s youth.
The 18-year-old Colonel Gray senior attended the second annual YDAY event in Charlottetown on Friday, where she expressed her concerns to The Guardian.
Trinh, who participates in a youth group through the P.E.I. Association of Newcomers to Canada, said millennials are being unfairly stereotyped. Some of the stereotypes she hears suggest youth are lazy, they’re always on their phones, they’re judgemental and they’re not responsible.
This, she said, is not the case. “The majority of youth are working, they’re volunteering, they’re doing extra-curriculars that they don’t have to do, but they do it because they are passionate. They want to make the community better, but no one sees that.”
The Grade 12 student, along with more than a hundred Island youth between the ages of 16 and 34, was at Holland College for the province’s full-day youth summit, which is a unique event that brings young people together to connect, collaborate and contribute to the future of P.E.I.
Young people have more to offer than they are being given credit for, she said.
“We want to show that we are motivated, we are passionate, we want to make change, we are entrepreneurs and we are leaders.”
Nicole Mountain, YDAY 2017 committee member and member of the Youth Futures Council, said the event is a way to hear from young people across P.E.I.
“It hopefully will help us, the Youth Futures Council, figure out what we’re going to tackle and what youth want us to tackle for the government.”
The Youth Futures Council is a council of young people from across the Island that works together to take ideas that are formed at YDAY, bring them to life and make recommendations to the province. It has been active for a little over a year.
Mountain said among the issues she heard at the summit was that youth either don’t think they have opportunities on P.E.I. or don’t know how to find out about the opportunities that are available for them.
“What I’ve been hearing from people is they don’t know where to look for work or where to look for resources for work,” she said. “They figure once they get to that point, they’re not going to have a valuable position they can work in.”
When the opportunity to join the Youth Futures Council came about last year, Mountain was immediately on board.
“I felt like youth needed more of a voice. As young people, sometimes we don’t get taken as seriously by people. So when the opportunity came up to be able to put my voice out there, I just jumped at (it).”