Suspended between the urge to kick myself for not bringing my recorder into the room to capture, what I thought were words of golden progress, and the rapture which held me in the room - it was the words of Bill Sparks that broke my trance.

However, because I did not have my recorder I shall paraphrase:
"This conference is about youth and how they want to design their future and implement the things they want."

That statement gave me an intense feeling of happiness.

The Global Citizens Forum, organized by the OCIC - Ontario Council for International Cooperation -
kicked off today with the International Participants Welcome at Oxfam Canada.

Participants from Haiti, Jamaica, Uganda, El Salvador and India were present. I felt such tremendous respect for those participants because they came all the way here to engage in an exchange of knowledge, confident that they had as much to offer as they would take.

About 30-40 people attended the welcome.

The food was great and we were all just about to network after all of the introductions when we were told to leave the building!

Coming out of the room, smoke hung in the air. We were directed to take our bags and exit down the stairs. One of the last things I heard before I left was someone exclaiming,

"Hot, sexy networking!"

I smiled and thought "You bet our ideas can start a fire!"

Well, the firemen eventually came - after about 10 minutes. During this time, I networked with Sol - who is one of the creators of 4Real - a production picked up by MTV and CTV about amazing youth who are making a difference under difficult circumstances. I spoke to him about the tools on the TIG site and what CLC Canada does and he seemed really interested - YAY.

I felt good that even though there may have been a fire going on and destroying material things inside the building, we were creating something that could never be destroyed - an idea and a connection that could make a difference.

The forum continues tonight! So more to come including pictures and podcasts.

Please see the documents section for a list of the international participants.

Suspended between the urge to kick myself for not bringing my recorder into the room to capture, what I thought were words of golden progress, and the rapture which held me in the room - it was the words of Bill Sparks that broke my trance.

However, because I did not have my recorder I shall paraphrase:
"This conference is about youth and how they want to design their future and implement the things they want."

That statement gave me an intense feeling of happiness.

The Global Citizens Forum, organized by the OCIC - Ontario Council for International Cooperation -
kicked off today with the International Participants Welcome at Oxfam Canada.

Participants from Haiti, Jamaica, Uganda, El Salvador and India were present. I felt such tremendous respect for those participants because they came all the way here to engage in an exchange of knowledge, confident that they had as much to offer as they would take.

About 30-40 people attended the welcome.

The food was great and we were all just about to network after all of the introductions when we were told to leave the building!

Coming out of the room, smoke hung in the air. We were directed to take our bags and exit down the stairs. One of the last things I heard before I left was someone exclaiming,

"Hot, sexy networking!"

I smiled and thought "You bet our ideas can start a fire!"

Well, the firemen eventually came - after about 10 minutes - and then I left.

The forum continues tonight! So more to come including pictures and podcasts.


Please see: - http://projects.takingitglobal.org/clccanada where I will be posting a list of the international participants and background information provided by the OCIC.

The Youth Action Network or YAN had an Open House today to launch their Resource Centre as well as their Youth Action Forum; a magazine published by and for youth. Through networking, I found out that while there were youth there who were part of the YAN or had come to support friends who were performing, there were also youth who heard about the event and came from as far as Scarborough. I thought that was really amazing. I was doing podcasts - and I asked them to speak but they were shy :) I did however manage to speak with youth who were more comfortable expressing themselves and I will be posting the podcast soon.

I will also be meeting with Kathy Raddon on the YAN staff to discuss how they can further expand their partnership with CLC.

I urge everyone to check out YAN's Youth Action Forum magazine. It is amazing. I started reading it on the subway and could not put it down. Before I knew it I was home - and I live pretty far from downtown Toronto. In my opinion, it's well laid out and graphically exciting and the stories will inspire and touch you.

Please go visit:
forum@youthactionnetwork.org as well as their main website http://youthactionnetwork.org/

The Youth Action Network or YAN had an Open House today to launch their Resource Centre as well as their Youth Action Forum; a magazine published by and for youth. Through networking, I found out that while there were youth there who were part of the YAN or had come to support friends who were performing, there were also youth who heard about the event and came from as far as Scarborough. I thought that was really amazing. I was doing podcasts - and I asked them to speak but they were shy :) I did however manage to speak with youth who were more comfortable expressing themselves and I will be posting the podcast soon.

I urge everyone to check out YAN's Youth Action Forum magazine. It is amazing. I started reading it on the subway and could not put it down. Before I knew it I was home - and I live pretty far from downtown Toronto. In my opinion, it's well laid out and graphically exciting and the stories will inspire and touch you.

Please go visit:
forum@youthactionnetwork.org as well as their main website http://youthactionnetwork.org/

GET INVOLVED! :)

H! I'm the new Toronto Youth Engagment Coordinator for Creating Local Connections Canada.
It's a great job title but what's even better is the actual position. Training happened in late September and it was great. Cheers to everyone who organized it! The team officially started on October 1st.
We will be building off of last year's successes and using many of the same tools - going to conferences, youth events, executing workshops, networking with other youth organisations, holding open forums and participating in live chats.
But we will also be flavouring our position with our own ideas and methods of action ;)
I think it's going to be a great year. I'm soooo looking forward to seeing it unfold!

Please check out the project page!
http://projects.takingitglobal.org/clccanada

AND ALSO please check out TIG on Make Some Noise:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGDy_isZ9aQ