Make Way for YOUth – Eastern Townships
Project Summary, June 2007
Introduction
The Make Way for YOUth - Eastern Townships initiative in 2007-2008 aims to identify strategies designed to integrate English-speaking youth into programs in various MRCs aimed at unlocking employment and entrepreneurial opportunities to youth.
The project also includes developing strategies that will bring youth to settle in the Townships, as well as identifying problems which prevent them from becoming fully involved in the community. The data collected will serve to facilitate the integration of English speakers into programs such as Place aux Jeunes, l’Agora and others which either encourage social integration or discourage leaving the region.
Objective
Prepare a foundation and a plan of action for involving English-speaking young people in existing action plans countering out-migration and encouraging social and economic engagement in the Eastern Townships.
Actions
(1) Collect information from each of the Eastern Townships MRCs on the subject of activities devoted to the social involvement of youth. We will identify what already exists in order that our plan of action take into account the programs and activities already in place.
(2) Create an action plan providing tools and strategies aimed at integrating young English speakers into existing activities in the Eastern Townships, establishing contact with them and informing them about these activities. The action plan will also aim to more actively involve business people in these activities. Finally, we anticipate using this action plan to support a request for financial aid to carry out the proposed initiative.
Targeted Results
Our aim is to develop a program for the English-speaking community, whose population in the Eastern Townships has fallen by about 30% over the course of 30 years (until 2001), while the francophone population has increased. The group aged 15-44 years of age has been particularly affected: The levels of education, employment and income in this group are lower than both their francophone counterparts and the older members of the English-speaking population.
We anticipate that Make Way for YOUth will serve as the “port of entry” for English-speaking youth, allowing them to fully participate in the social and economic life of the region.
Contact. Rachel Garber, Executive Director (dg@townshippers.qc.ca), or Marie-France Lafaille, MWFY-Desjardins Migration Agent (mfl@townshippers.qc.ca), at Townshippers’ Association, 257 Queen St., S. 100, Sherbrooke, QC, J1M 1K7. Tel: 819-566-5717 (toll free 1-866-566-5717).
Partners
Partnering with Townshippers’ Association in the Make Way for YOUth – Eastern Townships initiative are the Eastern Townships CEDEC and the Carrefour jeunesse emploi des Cantons-de-l’Est.
The 2007-2008 research phase of this initiative is financially supported by the Estrie regional envelope of the Fonds regional d’investissement jeunesse (FRIJ) of the Government of Quebec (administered by the Forum jeunesse de l’Estrie) and Townshippers’ Research & Cultural Foundation.
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