Diversifying Youth Engagement Conference at TRU March 14, 2025
There were several presenters in this conference and they presented in both a whole group arrangement and also a split arrangement of three different presenters at the same time so attendees had to choose which presentation to attend.
At first, there was a group presentation from a youth organization in Vancouver that presented called the Environmental Youth Alliance (EYA) and it is a program for youth age 14-18 years. They are a youth led organization that is a roots and shoots program literally planting in the harshest downtown east side of Vancouver where they engage teens to plant, attend, and cultivate plants so that they learn how to work with their hands and get away from the streets. They have anti-oppressive policies, are people centered, and use relational approaches. The organization is a trauma informed practice dealing with youth that have emotional, physical, and behavioural challenges in life. They engage these teens by offering them a safe place to be and offer choices for them to explore through their curiosity.
I then attended one of the three presenters, Sally Marten, called Recognizing and Responding to Unconscious Bias. She had three of the audience members act out a scene in a restaurant in which a black man was expected to pay before he got served but the white woman did not. I was actually stunned that this would actually happen so apparently I am naïve in that. Sally’s presentation was essentially getting us to realize that we all have biases and we sometimes do not even realize it. As educators, it is important to leave our biases out of the classroom but also to be able to acknowledge when we discover that we have any hidden that may come up. Be accepting of this knowledge and offer apologies to rectify the situation – Be humble! Also, if you as a bystander witness something, it is a responsibility to speak up about it. Racism and other biases affect us all.