A Community by and for you: Creating your space and your place in Canada

We would like to thank all of the participants who attend YAG 2017! Your enthusiasm and positvity made the conference all that it was, and we cannot wait to see you next year!

Here's a sample of some of your feelings about this year's YAG:

The 2017 Youth Action Gathering (YAG) was held from Thursday, April 27 until Saturday, April 29 at the University of Winnipeg’s Richardson College and was organized by the Youth Network (YN) of the Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR) in partnership with the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba (IRCOM).

The YAG brought together almost 200 newcomer youth and allies to learn, share, network and collaborate on actions and strategies to address common challenges. This YAG had the dual purpose of also serving as a platform to share and discuss the best ways for newcomer youth to be involved in their communities, given the Youth Network’s Newcomer Youth Civic Engagement (NYCE) projects.

This YAG focused on access to education, debunking assumptions about Islam and culture, creating inclusive spaces, indigenous perspectives, sharing strategies to increase newcomer youth civic engagement and art based approach to let youth voices be heard. Next YAG we would like to tackle mental health issues and access to those services for newcomer youth, problems specific to refugee youth and having more dialogue around cultural awareness while continuing to address the LGBTQ+ youth and Indigenous youth perspectives.