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social justice reflection
What did I do to create change this year?
These were my goals at the beginning of the year:
- speak at the Remembrance Day ceremony about ongoing conflicts
- develop a presentation on mental health aimed at young teens
- maintain my social justice blog
- volunteer with the Kelty Youth Ambassadors Program
At the beginning of the year, I had an opportunity (along with my friend Emily) to write a poem for the school's Remembrance Day ceremony. After some feedback, we choose to address the ongoing conflicts that take place around the world, rather than simply commemorating the previous efforts of Canada's soldiers.
While I was unable to complete a presentation on mental health, I did explore the issue
of mental health and the associated stigmas through my participation with the Kelty Youth Ambassadors (KYA) Program.
Initially, getting to know other members, we focused on sharing personal stories. It was helpful to see the people living with mental health issues, rather than imagining the issues abstractly. Much of the work in the program involved providing feedback from a youth perspective on anything from classroom resources to topics for a Youth Summit. The program successfully hosted a "Balancing Our Minds" Youth Summit, ran "Tweet Chats" on topics such as "Wellness Tools for Today's Youth", and us youth ambassadors collaborated to create resources (brochures, videos, etc.) for schools.
Of all my goals, the one I have been most interested in working on is my social justice blog. I tried to post regularly and critically examine certain issues in my
journals. Over the course of the year, I believe my writing has
improved. I think I found the voice of my inner
social justice warrior!