Stephen Vance, Staff
At their May 2 meeting, Meaford’s council approved a plan for the municipality seek the ‘Play Works Youth Friendly Community’ designation.
The Play Works organization is dedicated to advancing play for 13 – 19 year old youths in the areas of sport, physical activity, civic engagement, arts and culture, rural youth, and recreation on both the local and provincial levels.
The organization and its initiatives have the support of several youth organizations, including 4-H Ontario, YMCA Ontario, Parks & Recreation Ontario, and the Arts Network for Children and Youth.
There are currently 43 communities in Ontario designated as youth-friendly, accounting for 41 percent of the province’s population.
“The Play Works Youth Friendly Community Program works to acknowledge the great work that communities and municipalities are doing to ensuring their youth (ages 13 to 19 years) have continuous access to a diversity of ‘play’ (play being anything a young person does in his/her free time which could include: sport, recreation, drama, dance, music, the arts, volunteerism, leadership development, service leadership and/or civic engagement). The application process for designation is well underway, in partnership with the Georgian Bay Youth Roots Committee,” read a staff report presented to council.
The report to council said that as this is a community application, municipal staff will collaborate with “community youth, service partners, and the general public to complete the application process to become recognized as a youth friendly community”.
“Participating partners (Grey County Public Health Unit, Meaford Chamber of Commerce, Municipality of Meaford, Town of the Blue Mountains, and Beaver Valley Outreach) will identify gathering places and program opportunities geared to youth interests such as the programs offered at the Meaford Public Library, Meaford Hall, Meaford Museum, as well as organized community group functions, schools and other opportunities that provide programs for this age group,” advised the report.
Local youth will be encouraged to participate in the application process by sharing their opinions and feedback on programs, activities, and services. Youths who participate will also be able to express whether they feel their community is youth-friendly.
Meaford’s Director of Parks, Recreation, and Culture told council that there is no cost to the municipality to apply for the designation.
Councillor Jaden Calvert suggested that the municipality take the spirit of the initiative to heart by ensuring that genuine efforts are made to engage youth in the community.
“In some communities there has been the appearance of youth being involved in the process of becoming designated, but there were actually very few youth that were engaged. So there was the appearance that youth were engaged, but in reality they weren’t. So I’m of the opinion that as we move forward in this process that we do continue to make an effort to engage youth, not only throughout this process, but also continuing beyond becoming a youth-friendly designated community, and encouraging youth in our community to really take the lead when it comes to what programs are being offered, and how they want to be engaged,” suggested Calvert.
