Communities Building Youth Futures (CBYF), an ambitious initiative of the Tamarack Institute and the Government of Canada, is a 5-year Collective Impact strategy aimed at increasing graduation rates for youth facing barriers. By prioritizing a robust youth workforce and collaborative community building strategies, the project helps to reimagine collaboration within small to medium Canadian communities in their support of youth. Drawing upon their successes in Collective Impact, the Tamarack Institute has partnered with Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) to implement this project in 13 communities across the country.
CBYF is founded in community-based strategies that specifically engage and equip young people with the necessary support to navigate the transition from youth to adulthood. This program reflects Tamarack’s commitment to engage citizens and strengthen community capacity, with a focus on continuous learning and evaluation. ESDC’s funding stems from their Goal Getters program, which draws a direct link between higher education and a stronger labour market. While, economically, Canada benefits from a young workforce with secondary education, communities also benefit from youth that pursue opportunities beyond high school. Empowered students are more likely to be involved in their communities, and Tamarack’s practice of involving youth in the decisions that affect them reflects this reality.
The project is creatively designed to support a national network of 195 leaders, 13 local education systems, and 26 local employers across the 13 communities. While the importance of local involvement is key to the project, Tamarack has also implemented a National Collaborative network, comprised of organizations and individuals already working in youth engagement. The network connects each community with broader insight, and provides a means to monitoring and assessing the overall sustainability of the developing initiatives.
Additionally, the Community Innovation Fund offers the 13 participating communities an annual opportunity to submit a proposal for a new service, product, or system that will advance the CBYF strategy in their context. Over the course of 5 years, Tamarack and ESDC plan to fund 30 projects, with one-third of the funding set aside for proposals suggested by youth in the communities. “Having youth engaged in shared leadership, decision making, and input/consultation will ensure that youth have choice and voice in community change,” shared Nathalie Blanchett, Director of CBYF. Blanchett explained further that centering youth voices will deepen communities’ understandings of barriers facing youth and will ensure that solutions created will be relevant to youth who are currently experiencing these barriers. In a recent blog post, With NOT For, Jessica Lazare, a young leader in Kahnawà:ke’s CBYF initiative, emphasized the importance of youth engagement for community change:
"The support given by Tamarack considers reflection, learning and evaluation throughout the process, which is essential to ensuring that the principle of ‘with not for’ is being maintained. Respecting the essence of Indigenous methodologies, it is important to determine the needs for the youth with the youth and ensure that there is youth input in the decisions that will be made on their behalf moving forward."
In this spirit, Tamarack hosted the Seeing Youth Voices photography contest in early 2020 to help kickoff CBYF. The contest prompt, “What will your community look like in 10 years?” brought in over 100 submissions from youth across Canada. The selected photos, initially set to be displayed in multiple Canadian galleries, showcase 10 viewpoints of the future of community. Tamarack’s goal in engaging youth creatively was to invite the world to see through their eyes and put youth perspectives on the forefront.
Tamarack’s new efforts in this area are a part of the wave of initiatives calling for youth led programming. The United Way’s recent proposals for youth leadership and the global push for youth-led solutions to challenges presented by COVID-19, present two more examples. It is clear that solutions to Canadian problems lie in the hands of the next generation.