February 11, 2025
1:00-2:00 PM ET
Free on Zoom
*Please note, all registrants will be provided with a link to the recording and presentation slides following the session. The recording will be available for 60 days.
As of 2021, there are over 7 million young people in Canada between the ages of 15 and 29, and they are the country's most diverse and educated demographic group. As youth experts and youth, we know the power and value of activating youth in our work. Across all sectors, we depend heavily on the next generation's innovation, creativity, and ingenuity to animate our work and shape and define the world of tomorrow.
Whether you’re hoping to reach youth as staff, clients, volunteers, supporters, donors, board members, or maybe even your next Executive Director or CEO, you will need a comprehensive and targeted strategy to reach, engage and retain young people. After working with youth for 20 years, Apathy is Boring has developed the Youth Friendly Program to help organizations invest their time, energy and resources to uplift and activate young people in their spaces.
This first 40-minute session will cover the basics of Youth-Led Democratic Innovation and the 7 Youth Friendly Principles. These are proven strategies to engage young people, driven by research, evaluations and programmatic experience. At the end, we will have 10-15 minutes for questions and answers.
Outreach and You(th) (March 20), Social Media and You(th) (March 27) and Creating & Sustaining Programs and You(th) (April 3).
After this 40-minute introductory session, participants will
- Increase their understanding of the youth social values segments and the benefits of youth engagement
- Increase their knowledge of Youth-Led Democratic Innovation and the 7 Youth Friendly Principles and how to utilize these strategies to incorporate youth into their organizations
- Establish their understanding of the importance of youth participation across dominant culture and among decision-makers
Youth Friendly, a consulting program under Apathy is Boring, collaborates with partners to drive social innovation by strategically and intentionally integrating diverse youth perspectives in their work and practices. Through a thorough framework and carefully curated services, our mission is to educate and train our partners on creating spaces where youth can have a tangible impact on their conditions, especially within our democratic institutions.
Apathy is Boring was founded in 2004 when a choreographer, a filmmaker, and a fashion photographer met at a party. Troubled by how few of their friends actively participated in Canada’s democracy, they started a campaign to mobilize youth to vote during the 2004 federal election. The organization has since grown into a national charitable organization that supports and educates youth (18-30) to be active and contributing citizens in Canada’s democracy.
Sydney Penner
Sydney is the Research and Evaluations Lead at Apathy is Boring. Following her psychology degree from Simon Fraser University, she has worked in clinical mental health and addictions and non-profit social sciences research. At AisB, her job is to evaluate our programs and research new trends in youth-related democracy. She helps make sure we're doing what we set out to do—supporting you(th)!
Erika De Torres
Erika is the Director of Impact and Development at Apathy is Boring, where she has managed the RAD department for the past four years. Her interest in youth engagement and civic participation began when she was young, and she saw the importance of youth in these spaces for increased innovation and resiliency. In her spare time, she likes to play board games and walk her cat, Kimchi.
Session 1: Settler Colonialism 101
Introduce ENGO representatives to the fact that colonization is a structure and not an event. Identifies key ways that colonialism moves through individuals and organizations.
Session 2: Positionality
ENGO representatives learn how to articulate their social location within a settler colonial state, and in relation to potential Indigenous partners.
Session 3: Inherent Indigenous Governance 101
Introduce the fact that Indigenous nations have their own sources of political authority that they can (and do) draw on when addressing environmental issues. Examples provided.
Session 4: Building Better Relations
ENGO representatives will road test ways they can implement previous workshop key points to re-imagine partnerships with Indigenous nations.
Cost: $100 (or register 4 staff from the same organization for one stream and get the 5th registration free)
All registrants will be provided with a link to access the recordings and presentation slides for 60 days following each session.
Session 1: Diagnosing Settler Colonialism in the Enviro Sector
Participants will be asked to share ways in which they have diagnosed and traced power in social justice movements and/or in the ENGO sector. This workshop will make space for discomfort as part of promoting decolonization.
Session 2: Inherent Indigenous Governance
A mix of advanced and introductory theory, this workshop delves into legal and political pluralism, naming the fact that Indigenous nations have their own sources of political authority that they can (and do) draw on when addressing environmental issues.
Session 3: The Nonprofit Industrial Complex
ENGO participants are introduced to theories and examples describing the Nonprofit Industrial Complex and the “Shadow State.” Purpose is to show how settler colonialism structures civil society.
Session 4: Decolonizing ENGO-First Nation Partnerships
This workshop delves deep into how ENGOs can partner with Indigenous nations beyond the Nonprofit Industrial Complex while promoting deference to inherent Indigenous political leaders.
Cost: $100 (or register 4 staff from the same organization for one stream and get the 5th registration free)
All registrants will be provided with a link to access the recordings and presentation slides for 60 days following each session.
The Indigenous only space will be collaborative in nature but critical in approach. This track is a space for Indigenous folks within the ENGO sector to come together to discuss their experiences and work, with an eye to taking a position on what the sector might need to do in order to promote decolonization. Participants will use the first session to define our goals for the remaining three meetings. Therefore, session topics named here are proposals only.
Session 1: Naming the Cannibal: Settler Colonialism in the ENGO Sector
Session 2: Proposed topic: Reflections on working in the ENGO Sector
Session 3: Proposed topic: Centering Indigenous Thought in the ENGO Sector
Session 4: Proposed topic: Visioning a Decolonial Environmental Sector
Cost: Free
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