Prince Edward County councillors on Tuesday took action towards getting local youth involved and interested in municipal politics.
At Prince Edward County council’s meeting, council approved a recommendation that the municipality join the Youth Council Coalition of Canada and its hour-for-hour challenge. The Youth Council Coalition of Canada is a non-profit organization aimed at getting youth across the country to get involved in municipal government and to be civically engaged.
The hour-for-hour challenge allows students to earn their mandatory 40 hours of community and civic engagement by engaging in municipal government and with local elected officials.
Councillors talked about engaging with local high school student government organizations and even pairing students with councillors for integrated participation.
Prince Edward County Clerk Catalina Blumenberg explained some of the possibilities on how students might engage with councillors.
“Some of you will just ask that the students watch the meetings and then you could email ‘send me three things you learned about the meeting’. Some other ideas are reading the agenda together, perhaps you ask them to research a topic that’s upcoming on the agenda, so they review the agenda, you ask that they research the topic, maybe you have a question they can answer or find the answer for you.”
Prince Edward County is the first Eastern Ontario municipality to join the Youth Council Coalition of Canada. For more information on the YCC and the hour-for-hour challenge, see the YCC website.
