Ferguson’s talk will take place Oct. 24, from noon to 2pm, at 163 Behavioural Science Building, Keele campus. The event, sponsored by the LaMarsh Centre for Child & Youth Research, is open to everyone, but an RSVP is requested.

A Jamaican-born psychologist who researches the identity and well-being of Caribbean youth, a major aim ofĚý’s research is to identify protective factors for the positive development of Caribbean youth and families across the diaspora.

Ferguson, a professor in the Department of HumanĚý& Community Development, will share findings from her most recent research project, The Culture and Family Life Study, which investigated the culture and adjustment of Jamaican immigrant adolescents and parents living in the United States, compared with Jamaican families on the island and native-born American families in the US.

Her work has been published in leading regional and international journals including the Caribbean Journal of Psychology, Child Development and the International Journal of Behavioral Development. In 2007, Ferguson was invited by the Ottawa television program “Caribbean Calendar” to deliver a seminar on youth well-being to the local Jamaican community, an event which was later broadcast.

To RSVP, e-mail lamarsh@yorku.ca. For more information, visit the LaMarsh Centre for Child & Youth Research website.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin to research stories on the research website.

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Among the researchers featured in the campaign is 91ŃÇÉ« humanities Professor Andrea Davis. The campaign profiles the work Davis is doing to alleviate the causes of youth violence.Ěý Through her research, Davis is working withĚýcommunity partners to help black youth Ěýin Canada and Jamaica challenge physical and systemic violence and find new paths toward social and civic engagement. Her work helps young people form new social identities through participation in the arts, social history and literature.Ěý to view the profile.

"This campaign provides a unique opportunity for researchers across the province to share the wide range of research they do,” says Davis.Ěý“The project my team and I are leading is certainly only one of many amazing research projects at 91ŃÇÉ«, but it resonates specifically with Ontarians because it addresses immediate questions about youth violence. There is no doubt that the stakes are high, and the potential for change and transformation is enormous."

“The work of thousands of university researchers in Ontario affects industry, government and community life in a multitude of ways,” says Alastair Summerlee, chair of COU and president of the University of Guelph. “Those stories about how researchers help people build stronger communities, get more out of work and leisure time, and achieve a better quality of life deserve to be told.”

“This campaign will connect more Ontarians directly with researchers and their ideas,” says Bonnie Patterson, COU president and CEO. “Ontarians can rightly take pride in the fascinating and highly diverse research underway here.”

“The Research Matters campaign is highlighting the important contributions that University research makes to the lives of Ontarians through the voices of many of Ontario’s leading university researchers,” said Robert HachĂ©, vice-president research & innovation.Ěý “91ŃÇÉ« is most pleased that Professor Andrea Davis and her important research is being highlighted in this initiative. Andrea’s research is making a positive difference in the lives of individuals, locally and abroad. ĚýHer project identifies youth violence prevention strategies and facilitates opportunities for youth to engage more constructively in their communities.”

Ontario university research is the common thread that ties these and hundreds of other stories together. Visit the COU's website, follow the campaign on Twitter at ,Ěýor join the community on .

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience higher rates of bullying, whichĚýareĚýassociated with a higher incidence of mental health issues, according to a study in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders this month by 91ŃÇÉ« researchers.

“Very little research has been done to assess the relationship between bullying and mental health in youth with ASD. It’s always been suspected there was a link, but this study confirms that,” says 91ŃÇÉ« Psychology Professor Jonathan Weiss, lead researcher of the study and co-author of the article, along with Debra Pepler, Distinguished Research Professor in Psychology, and first author M. Catherine Cappadocia, PhD candidate in clinical-developmental psychology.

M. Catherine Cappadocia

“In the study, those youth with ASD who experienced little or no victimization, less than two or three times in the past month, compared to those victimized at least once a week, exhibited less anxiety, self-injury and over-sensitive behaviours,” says Cappadocia.ĚýShe, Weiss and Pepler, who is scientific co-director of the Promoting RelationshipsĚý& Eliminating Violence Network (), are allĚýmembers ofĚý91ŃÇɫ’s Faculty of Health.

In “”, the researchers surveyed 192 parents whose children, between the ages of five and 21 and enrolled in elementary or secondary school up to Grade 12, had been diagnosed with ASD. The authors examined the parents’ reports of victimization, along with the association between the rate of victimization experienced and mental health issues. Seventy-five per cent reported their child with ASD had been bullied within the last month at school, 23 per cent reported victimization two or three times, 13 per cent reported victimization once a week and 30 per cent two or more time a week. Fifty per cent of the youth with ASD had experienced victimization for more than a year, and that can lead to anxiety, depression, self-injury, hyperactivity, over-sensitivity and a lower self-concept, says Cappadocia.

ĚýĚý

Jonathan Weiss

“It’s one of the first studies to look at bullying in youth with ASD. It’s important as it shines a light on youth with ASD and victimization,” says Weiss. “I think it really highlights that chronic victimization is common for some of these youth. A large percentage of the youth in this study experience chronic victimization. Those are the youth that have significantly more mental health concerns.” In addition, he says, one in 110 children has been diagnosed with ASD. “It’s one of the most common identifications in the school system.”

One factor that puts youth with ASD at risk for victimization is when they have more difficulty being assertive and making friends at school. They often lack social and pragmatic skills, and their parents may be less empowered to effect change as a result of the number of major stresses in their lives. “These are a lot of the same factors that are found in the general population of kids that are bullied,” says Weiss. “What really stands out in this study is the association with these risk factors.”

A lack of friends is a significant risk factor for bullying even in the general population and leaves these children unprotected by their peers. That means no one is going to stand up for them when someone starts to bully them. “Eighty-five per cent of the time when bullying happens, peers are watching,” says Cappadocia. “If a peer stands up, 50 per cent of the time the bullying stops. Peer support makes a huge difference and represents a robust protective factor these kids are missing.”

ĚýDebra Pepler

Youth with ASD may also be more vulnerable because they lack the skills needed to react effectively to victimization when it does occur. “When children with ASD are targeted, there can be a more intense behavioural reaction, which may encourage the child who is bullying to continue,” she says. “If a child with ASD has a strong emotional or behavioural reaction, the bullying can become chronic, especially if peers tend to jump in and encourage the child who is bullying. It can keep escalating.”

Weiss, Pepler and Cappadocia all do clinical work in addition to research. In her clinical work, Cappadocia frequently sees youth with ASD who have been bullied. “Part of the interest in pursuing this particular research came from being interested clinically in how to help these children.”

The next step is to find interventions to help these children and their classmates, which would then translate to the general population, says Weiss. He is looking to run groups at 91ŃÇÉ« next year for youth with ASD who experience bullying, which will look at all facets of the problem, from peers, the school, their family, as well as the child.

He is also interested in looking at what makes some youth with ASD, who’ve been victimized, resilient. He’ll be examining what the peer, family and school relations are like, and why they may buffer the potential mental health impact of victimization.

Cappadocia received support through the Provincial Centre of Excellence for Child & Youth Mental Health at CHEO Graduate Award and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships Doctoral Award. Weiss was supported by a New Investigator Fellowship from the Ontario Mental Health Foundation, while Pepler was supported by Networks of Centres of Excellence through its support of PREVNet.

For more information, visit the website.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Trombonist Ron Westray, Oscar Peterson Chair in Jazz Performance in 91ŃÇɫ’s Department of Music, returns to Toronto’s Massey Hall on Thursday, Feb. 23 for an innovative youth outreach program.

He will lead “Rhythm Counts”, an invitational workshop for young people, just before his former bandmates, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra led by Wynton Marsalis, take centre stage to perform the highly-anticipated .

Ron Westray

Called , the arts and education outreach program presented by the Corporation of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall provides complimentary tickets for selected concerts to youth who might otherwise be unable to attend. The program, now in its 13th season, aims to enhance and broaden students’ musical horizons by exposing them to world-class performers and related pre-concertĚýdemo-workshops by noted local performers/educators.

Westray has invited 91ŃÇÉ« music grad and multiple Juno Award-winning jazz saxophonist Mike Murley to co-host the 30-minute workshop, to be held in Massey Hall’s intimate Century Lounge. The session is designed to demonstrate the language of jazz and the art of improvisation, to prepare the students for the mainstage performance. Together, Westray and Murley will present an informal mix of commentary, musical demonstrations and historical highlights, followed by a Q&A. Tickets for the workshop and concert have been distributed to more than 150 music students, ranging in age from 12 to 17, at selected schools and community groups in the Greater Toronto Area.

“I was thrilled to be invited to take part in Share the Music and connect with these young people,” said Westray. “I come from the performance world, and it’s always a pleasure to have the opportunity to play, plus the chance to talk about the music with a fresh audience.”

Westray in performance at the Lincoln Arts Center

“We’re delighted to have Professor Westray on board for this event,” said program coordinator Laraine Herzog. “He’s a perfect fit, seeing as he was lead trombonist with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for so many years. His reputation as an incredible performer and educator precedes him – not to mention his connection with Oscar Peterson, a true Canadian musical hero, through his position at 91ŃÇÉ«.”

Prior to joining 91ŃÇÉ«, Westray toured internationally with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for more than a decade, including a number of performances at Massey Hall.

“Wynton [Marsalis] deserves every honour for his immense accomplishments in building the JLCO, its reputation as one of the finest jazz ensembles in the world, and its remarkable touring reach,” said Westray. “I was in the audience when they played Massey Hall last year, and it was like seeing my family from the other side of the fourth wall. I’m looking forward to seeing these guys play once again, and to helping a new young audience develop a deeper connection to a band and a musical repertoire I feel so strongly about.”

As well as a performer, Westray is an accomplished composer and recording artist. His commissions for the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra include the monumental score Chivalrous Misdemeanors – Select Tales from Don Quixote (2005) and arrangements of the works of Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman. He is well known for his collaborations with Wycliffe Gordon, and has also appeared in concert with such luminaries as Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Stevie Wonder, Benny Carter, Dewey Redman, Roy Haynes, Randy Brecker and a host of other pre-eminent artists. A regular on the New 91ŃÇÉ« City club circuit, he has played premier jazz venues such as the Village Vanguard, Blue Note, Sweet Basil’s, Iridium, Jazz Standard and Smalls, and is a standing member of the Mingus Band. In 2009, he joined 91ŃÇɫ’s music department, where he teaches in the jazz program and co-directs the 91ŃÇÉ« Jazz Orchestra.

Next month, Westray is participating as soloist and clinician at the prestigious Savannah Music Festival. On March 25, he appears as guest soloist with the 91ŃÇÉ« Wind Symphony, performing Rimsky-Korsakov’s Trombone Concerto under the baton of 91ŃÇÉ« music Professor William Thomas.

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Robert HachĂ© (left), 91ŃÇÉ«'s vice-president research & innovation, and Harvey Skinner (below right), dean of 91ŃÇɫ’s Faculty of Health, will host the Research Celebration, Tuesday, Jan. 17, from 2 to 4 pm, in the Scott Library Atrium, Keele campus.

The celebration will highlight innovation in muscle health research at 91ŃÇÉ« and will include talks from four Faculty of Health researchers discussing their work.

"This celebration provides an opportunity for the 91ŃÇÉ« research community to share knowledge and ideas and to come together to learn more about the breadth and depth of innovative research taking place at the University,” says HachĂ©.

The four researchers will discuss the role muscles play in everything from obesity and diabetes to osteoarthritis and reversing the aging process.

“Keeping people healthier longer, so that they can age positively and avoid chronic diseases and injuries, is at the heart of this celebration of ground breaking research underway in the Faculty of Health,” says Skinner.

Professor Rolando Ceddia, a Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator, will discuss “Improving Muscle and Adipose Tissue Function to Treat Obesity and Diabetes: The Role of Exercise and Diet”.

“My research investigates the molecular and physiological mechanisms by which obesity induces dysfunctional metabolic alterations in adipose tissue and skeletal muscle; two tissues that play crucial roles in regulating energy and glucose homeostasis,” says Ceddia, of 91ŃÇɫ’s Muscle Health Research Centre in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science.

Left: Rolando CeddiaĚý

“We study the effects of exercise, either alone or in combination with nutritional and pharmacological interventions, on glucose and lipid metabolism in diet-induced obesity.”

The presentation will look at the adaptive responses induced by chronic endurance training in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue metabolism, as well as the implications for whole-body energy expenditure. The main goal is to understand the role of exercise and diet in the prevention and/or treatment of obesity and its co-morbidities.

Professor Jennifer Kuk (right)Ěýof 91ŃÇɫ’s School of Kinesiology & Health Science will look at “Aerobic Versus Resistance Exercise for Decreasing Diabetes Risk in Obese Youth”. The focus of this talk is to examine the effectiveness of aerobic and resistance exercise for improving insulin resistance in youth using a randomized control design.

Insulin resistance at the site of the muscle is one of the hallmark characteristics of pre-diabetes and TypeĚý2 diabetes, says Kuk. Increasingly, youth are presenting with insulin resistance. It is increasingly important to develop non-pharmacological interventions for treating insulin resistance.ĚýĚý

Aerobic and resistance exercise help improve insulin resistance in adults. Aerobic exercise improves muscle glucose metabolism and resistance exercise increases the muscle mass available for uptaking glucose.ĚýĚý

Biology Professor David Hood (left), a Canada Research Chair in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science, will discuss the topic, “Can Exercise 'Rescue' Aging Muscles?” Skeletal muscle occupies about 40 per cent of body weight and is a major contributor to whole body health and metabolism.

“As we age, we lose muscle mass, and this is apparent in elderly, frail individuals. The mechanisms of how this muscle mass is lost are not completely understood, but a prominent theory involves the increasing malfunction of mitochondria within muscle cells,” says Hood. “Mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell, the organelles which supply the energy for cell survival.”

With age, mitochondrial content within muscle declines and they begin to produce molecules called “reactive oxygen species” which inflict damage on cellular DNA. If the DNA in any cell breaks down, the cell dies. In the case of muscle cells, they atrophy or shrink. If many cells atrophy, the body loses muscle mass.

“Research has shown that exercise is a potential non-pharmacological therapy which can be used to reduce the loss of muscle mass by improving mitochondrial function, thereby preserving muscle function as we age,” says Hood.

Professor William Gage (right), associate dean research & innovation, will examine “Muscles and Sore Joints: Arthritis and Muscle Activity”. The knee and hip joints experience large loads when a person walks, says Gage. To deal with those loads, the joints and surrounding muscles act together to allow a person to move, while protecting the joints from the loading that occurs during movement.

As a person moves, their muscles are activated or turned on at the right time by the right amount so their joints will not only move, but their limbs won’t collapse under the weight, says Gage. Sensors in the joints contribute to the nervous system’s knowledge of when and how the muscles should be turned on.

Previous research has shown that when a joint is painful or swollen the sensory information coming from these joint sensors is affected, which in turn affects the activation of the muscles around the joints. A long-term outcome of this response may be osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis, affecting more than 50 per cent of those over the age of 65.

“Recent research in our lab has examined how different strategies during walking may influence the amount of loading in the knee joint and how muscles around the joint respond to loads that are imposed on the knee joint,” says Gage. “Future work in our lab will explore how loading and muscle activity are affected by changes in the sensory information that arises from the knee joint.”

To RSVP to Lia Novario, by Friday, Jan. 13, or call ext. 33782.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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The symposium will take place Thursday, Oct. 6, from 8:30am to 12:30pm, at 280N 91ŃÇÉ« Lanes, Keele campus, followed by lunch from 12:30 to 2pm.

The presenters will also discuss the “so-whatness” or policy implications of their research.

“Service Preferences of Homeless Youth: Housing First, Treatment First or Both Together?” will be discussed by Ěý(right), acting associate director of nursing research at the University of Western Ontario. Housing-first initiatives focus on interventions designed to move individuals to appropriate and available housing, and ongoing housing supports. It has been found to produce good outcomes for homeless adults with mental illness but has not been specifically testedĚýfor youth. With the treatment-first initiative, the individual is not housed until psychiatrically stable.

Forchuk will look at a current studyĚýthat examined three approaches to service for homeless youth – housing first, treatment first for mental health and addictions, and simultaneous attention to both housing and treatment. Youth were given the opportunity to choose which service method they preferred.

Ěý(left), director of the Institute of Urban Studies at the University of Winnipeg, will discuss “Homelessness and Mental Health: Winnipeg’s Approach to Building Capacity and Housing Those in Need”. Distasio’s presentation will provide an overview of a massive five-city study by the Mental Health Commission of Canada,Ěýthat examined the effectiveness of a housing-first intervention in the Canadian context. Distasio will focus on the unique aspects of the Winnipeg approach, which has been built on the strengths of the local Aboriginal community.

Ěý(right), of St. Michael’s Hospital and a professor at the University of Toronto, will talk about “Health Care Utilization Among People Who Are Homeless”. He will discuss research that measured health care utilization rates among homeless adults in a large Canadian urban centre and compared observed utilization rates to matched controls from the general population. Most of the research on this topic has been conducted in the United States.

University of Ottawa psychology Professor (left) will discuss “Lesson Learned from the Implementation of Housing First in a Small Canadian City”. His talkĚýwill focus on the Mental Health Commission of Canada’s housing-first study and the results of the housing-first approach in Moncton, NB.

A key feature of the Canadian response to homelessness is the use of law enforcement to manage its visibility. 's research presentation, “Can I See Your ID? Policing and the Criminalization of Youth Homelessness in Toronto”, will focus on the interactions that Toronto street youth have with members of the Toronto Police Service. Gaetz, a professor inĚý91ŃÇɫ’s Faculty of Education and associate dean of research & field development for the homeless hub, will discuss his research with of the University of Guelph.

Right: Stephen Gaetz

Their research has found that youth who use drop-ins and emergency housing services regularly have encounters with the police. For youth who are severely marginalized, many of these encounters take place because of their public drinking and illegal substance use. But for other homeless youth not involved in crime or illegal drug use, they, too, are under close police surveillance and contact. The presentation will conclude with a discussion on the implications of social profiling and the criminalizing of youth homelessness.

The symposium is presented by the and . For more information, visit the homeless hub symposiumĚýweb page.

Space is limited. To guarantee a spot, RSVP to Susan Atkinson at satkinson@edu.yorku.ca or ext. 30208. The symposium will also be presented as a webinar. To register for the webinar, .

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The project, Youth and Community Development in Canada and Jamaica: A Transnational Approach to Youth Violence, popularly known as “Project Groundings”, opened with two youth forums in Kingston and St. Mary, Jamaica on July 28 and 31. At both of these events, black youth from Jamaica and Canada confronted the systemic violence that marks their lives and initiated a conversation about how they might interrupt these complex patterns of violence.

Right: 91ŃÇÉ« Professor Andrea Davis addressing a youth forum in Jamaica

Andrea Davis, deputy director of CERLAC and the project’s principal investigator, says, “Many youth lack the language and cultural awareness necessary to respond to their environment in a critical and transformative way, and often end up perpetuating forms of social violence themselves.” By bringing Jamaican youth into a conversation with Canadian youth, Project Groundings “seeks to facilitate critical national and transnational dialogue that can open up avenues of collaboration among youth across their shared cultural boundaries,” says Davis. This transformative dialogue seeks not only to change the behaviour and action of youth, but also to increase public awareness, affect public policy and contribute to the ongoing body of research on youth violence.Ěý

In the project’s opening National Youth Forum in Kingston, Jamaican youth grappled with the unique challenges they face, including sexual violence against women, victimization based on sexual orientation, access to education, unemployment, socio-economic disparities in the administration of justice and the absence of effective platforms from which to voice their concerns.

Above: New researchĚýuses art forms, such as drama, to explore the effects of violence on black youth in Canada and JamaicaĚý

The second youth forum in Woodside, St. Mary, examined the specific concerns faced by rural youth.ĚýHere, youth identified a lack of facilities and resources, including poor roads and inadequate transportation, as their greatest challenges. While they recognized the necessity of agricultural pursuits, they also pointed to the lack of crop diversification and financial compensation as major deterrents leading them off the land.

The question of violence was also central to the Woodside forum, which closed with an impromptu commemoration of the life of Shauna Kaye Shaw, a community youth leader murdered earlier this year. In defiance of the fear brought on by her death, Woodside youth committed to resume youth activities.

Right: Jamaica Youth Theatre performing The Pickney Dem a Dry

As Peter Cumming, coordinator of 91ŃÇɫ’s Children’s Studies Program and president of the Association for Research in Cultures of Young People, says, “The most exciting development in the research team’s first sessions in Jamaica was the moving demonstration of Jamaican youths’ eager and serious engagement with issues of violence through their sharing of their own experiences, their animated discussion about possible solutions for societal violence, and their strategic use of the arts, particularly theatre, to represent and confront the enormous pain caused by violence.”

One example of the use of the arts was Jamaica Youth Theatre’s (YRT) performance of the skit The Pickney Dem a Dry. The skit explores the grief of a mother who learns of the death of her daughter on the streets. While it begins as a personal mourning, it quickly mounts into collective suffering, a disturbing yet inspiring memorial to young people who have died violently. This performance powerfully deployed a poem, a clothesline on which the names of murdered youth were hung and chants based on street graffiti to acknowledge a shared humanity among youth – “We all bleed red”. It also challenged everyone as individuals and nations to “Live up! Live up!”

Left: Toronto youth Ebthihal Nabag (left) and Nabi Shash from Nia Centre for the Arts participate in a youth exchange

“I was humbled by the honesty and courage of these young people,” says Davis. “Being able to see the transformative elements of the research and the way young people from both countries embraced and empowered each other was enormously fulfilling.”

This innovative approach to youth violence is funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada and brings together researchers from 91ŃÇÉ«, McMaster University, the universities of Guelph, Ottawa and Waterloo, as well as the University of the West Indies (Mona campus). It also includes three community partners – JYT in Kingston, the Woodside Development Action Group in St. Mary and Nia Centre for the Arts in Toronto,

The project will host a second youth forum, workshop and photo exhibit in Toronto Oct. 28 and 29.

For more information, visit the CERLAC website or e-mail Andrea Davis at aadavis@yorku.ca.

By 91ŃÇÉ« graduate student Jan Anderson

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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, a visiting scholar at the LaMarsh Centre for Child & Youth Research, will deliverĚýa LaMarsh talk Wednesday, June 15, from 1 to 2pm, in 163 Behavioural Science Building, Keele campus. His talk, “The Role and Meaning of Work in Individual Lives During Emerging Adulthood: Trajectories and Adaptation” will be based on data collected in a four-wave longitudinal design in which 175 Israeli emerging adults with the mean age of 22 years were followed over a period of seven years. The focus of the study was on the occupation and relationship decision-making process.

Right: Shmuel Shulman

“Taking a biographical approach, we focus on the processes of occupation and relationship decision-making among young people rather than on concrete outcomes,” says Shulman, whose research covers developmental processes and psychopathology during adolescence and young adulthood. “That is the subjective meaning that certain options and outcomes have for the young person and on his or her subsequent adaptation.”

In addition to the four assessments, at the fourth wave the participants were given an in-depth interview covering work and love domains. As part of a broader interview, young people were asked to talk about their work experiences, feelings and expectations about work and its meaning. They were also asked to reflect on changes and turning points in their work and career histories.

Qualitative analysis of the interviews yielded four main constructs of personal inner work meanings and their evolvement over time, reflecting adaptive and maladaptive trajectories. “Our findings show that the multiplicity of experiences can be traced to individual personality and relational attributes,” says Shulman. “For example, self-efficacy, self-criticism, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation explain the different trajectories that young people embark on.”

He will discuss the importance of examining subjective meanings in developmental processes as well as the role of personality constructs in coping with developmental tasks during emerging adulthood.

Shulman has more than 100 publications, including books and papers. His work has focused mainly on understanding the development and processes in adolescent romantic relationships. Recent research on young adults, however, has also examined the process associated with consolidation of occupational identity and its interplay with commitment in relationships.

For more information or to RSVP, e-mail lamarsh@yorku.ca.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Above: From left, front row, ACT for Youth Project research interns Stephanie Lucas, Stephanie Henry, Aziz Mohammed, Muzna Rehman, Enoruwa Osagie, with youth co-chair Alex Lovell, a 91ŃÇÉ« grad, in the back

Dozens of students from area high schools joined the participants on April 14 to celebrate the Youth research interns and youth-led committee leaders, who worked on the project in 2010.

The ACT for Youth Project, which began in 2009 and is funded through 2014, brings together an alliance of stakeholders and interdisciplinary researchers from 91ŃÇÉ« in a program of applied research, capacity building, knowledge transfer and evaluation that is focused on youth in urban communities.

The project hopes to develop a comprehensive youth strategy that articulates how places like the Jane-Finch community can energize local assets that support positive youth development.

One of the goals of the project is to build the research capacity of youth in the Jane/Finch area so they can participate in asking and answering questions about issues of importance to their community.Ěý The project created its Youth Research Internship to facilitate this goal.Ěý ACT also has a youth-led committee to ensure that youth have a space to contribute to their research.

Youth-led committee co-chairs Antonius Clarke, executive director of the youth-led community agency Friends in Trouble, and 91ŃÇÉ« grad Alex Lovell [BA Spec. Hons. ’02, MA ’06], now a doctoral student at Queen’s University, introduced each award recipient and outlined their research contributions, volunteer activities and future study plans.

Above: From left, front row, youth-led committee leaders Abubakar Sultan, Edwin Chacon; middle row, Alexander Toolsie, Erica Holness, Taneese Jones, Olivia Agyemang, Tara Sherif, Suhentha Suthaharan; back row, co-chairs Lovell and Antonias Clarke

The youth-led committee leaders recognized at the event were:

• Olivia Agyemang, Westview Centennial Secondary School
• Edwin Francis White Chacon, Emery Collegiate Institute
• Ann Duong, Earl Haig Secondary School
• Nicola Holness, University of Windsor
• Taneese Jones, Westview Centennial Secondary School
• Suhentha Suthaharan, C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute
• Alexander Toolsie, 91ŃÇÉ« co-op student
• Tara Sherif, Westview Centennial Secondary School
• Abubakar Sultan, Emery Collegiate Institute

The youth research interns recognized at the event were:

• Ryan Edwards, 91ŃÇÉ«
• Stephanie Henry, Seneca College
• Femi Lawson, Ryerson University
• Funmilola Lawson, 91ŃÇÉ«
• Stephanie Lucas, Westview Centennial Secondary School
• Aziz Mohammed, Northview High School
• Enoruwa Osagie, William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute
• Muzna Rehman, Westview Centennial Secondary School
• Judy Truong, Weston Collegiate Institute

Uzo Anucha, professor in 91ŃÇɫ’s School of Social Work, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, co-chairs the ACT for Youth Project with Sue Wilkinson, executive director of the .

ACT is funded through a $1M grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. For more information on the Act for Youth Project, visit their website.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Polling suggests young people favour the Greens, Liberals and New Democrats: parties that have demonstrated some commitment — however limited — to urban issues in this campaign. A politically engaged youth is thus important for the civic and social health of our urban regions. But as comedian Rick Mercer has quipped, “as far as any political parties are concerned,” young people “might as well be dead.”

As any political scientist will tell you, in a pluralist liberal democracy, those who make the most noise — by voting, organizing, lobbying — are more likely to have their issues addressed by government. Pluralism implies many groups of relatively equal power jockeying for position and influence in political life.

We live, however, in a country of great social and economic inequality where money and power, two things youth lack, go a long way to securing an audience with the governing classes. Young people have power in numbers, but organizing and exercising that power around common interests is never easy. Through advocacy groups and party politics, seniors have flexed their political muscle this election, pushing the parties to address their immediate concerns, from home care to public pensions; youth have yet to flex theirs.

Urban youth have their own issues: environmental sustainability and the livability of cities are major concerns. The young are more frequent users of public transit and would benefit from a federal role in building the green transportation infrastructure our country so desperately needs. Funding for the arts and athletics are also a priority of urban youth, who recognize their value in facilitating creative expression and promoting social cohesion in the highly diverse landscapes of Canadian cities.

Then there are the myriad social problems facing many of today’s urban youth, problems the political parties have failed to highlight this campaign. For instance, in Toronto 40 per cent of black students do not graduate from high school. Drug-addicted youth in Vancouver’s downtown east side struggle to secure housing and access to services. Racialized youth face discrimination and outright racism in urban labour markets and in their contact with police and the criminal justice system. The young are disproportionately represented in the ranks of our cities’ precariously employed; those workers struggling to make ends meet working temporary, part-time or multiple jobs with low wages and few benefits. And there are the extremely high rates of poverty and incarceration of young aboriginal people in cities such as Winnipeg and Regina.

As in any federal system, politicians will squabble over whose jurisdiction these issues fall under. It’s time to move beyond these squabbles and recognize that urban youth, and our cities in general, would benefit from a strong federal urban presence and the development of a federally-led urban strategy. Stephen Harper explicitly opposes such a notion; he’s committed to a model of governance in which the feds do not “interfere” in the business of the provinces and municipalities.

But a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach from the feds is not desirable either. Municipal governments are best placed to evaluate the needs of local populations, including youth. Cities have been important drivers in the design and innovation of Canadian social services and social programs. Any federal urban strategy with a youth component should recognize this and respect the diversity of Canadian cities. For instance, a program to address street gangs (with gang-exit and gang-intervention initiatives) in a city such as Regina in which aboriginal youth are disproportionately involved in gang life will necessarily take a different form than programs in Montreal or Toronto.

In any progressive era of Canadian politics, the federal government has exercised its federal spending power to alter Canada’s approach to issues that were essentially within provincial jurisdiction. In the fields of education, welfare and health care, the feds have influenced provincial and municipal policies and program standards.

Beyond providing necessary funding to cash-strapped cities, a federal urban youth strategy could establish principles that govern access to programs and services without becoming excessively involved in their design and delivery. Pairing universal programs with targeted investments based on the social citizenship, social rights and democratic participation and engagement of young people is vital to building such a strategy.

But an urban youth strategy is not likely to emerge unless it is fought for and demanded by young people themselves. In urban centres across our country, many youth are active in civic life, but often in ways that don’t conform to the politics-as-usual of parties and elections. Other youth speak the language of distress and despair, with gunshots or requests for spare change on our city streets. Whatever the manifestation of their voice, politicians ignore urban youth at our cities’ peril.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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