youth are awesome.com

It’s that time of year again – your opportunity to join the Mayor’s Youth Council!

The Mayor’s Youth Council (MYC), is a partnership between Child and Youth Friendly Calgary and The City of Calgary, and represents the voice of Calgary’s youth. 

Each year members of the Mayor’s Youth Council (ages 13-18) choose topics relevant to youth and report their findings to the City of Calgary.   This year Mayor’s Youth Council underwent restructuring, we currently have three committees, each with a different focus; community events/meetings with Alderman, research and education surrounding a youth issue in Calgary (last year it was homelessness) and a media committee, who do bimonthly podcasts (cool!) on topics of relevance to youth in Calgary, and this year will include blogging (on YAA!).  Plus…you may even get to meet the Mayor!

This structure may change slightly this year and we’d love to have new members on board with ideas about activities and issues we can take on.  

 Large group meetings with all MYC members usually happen once a month (although this may change) and committee meetings are usually twice a month (sometimes more) – so you would end up having around 5-7 hours a month of volunteer commitment.  When choosing members we consider age, what ward you live in, community and volunteer activities. 

Check out the application form here, and if you have any questions, email myc@cyfc.ca

“Change the world” is something you probably hear on a regular basis – now, here’s your chance to actually help change someone’s world around. Kiva is an organization that is helping to eliminate poverty by connecting people all over the world through the process of micro-lending.

Through Kiva’s website, you can lend your money (as little or as much as you would like), say $20, to an entrepreneur in a third world country to help them get their personal business off the ground and make their way towards financial independence.  Your money goes toward the larger loan that that person needs to purchase supplies and other necessities for their business.

The most interesting part about the process is that you can search through profiles of different entrepreneurs and actually select who you would like to loan your money to.  After this, you will get updates on how your entrepreneur is doing and what your money helped them do.  For example, Amada is an entrepreneur in the Dominican Republic who used her loan to purchase the supplies to make her own recipe of sweet bread to sell, along with vegetables she was already selling.  Her income increased as a result and now her family eats healthier and put a cement floor in their house to cover the dirt they were previously living on.  Pretty cool, hey?

After your loan is repaid, you can re-lend it to another entrepreneur of your choosing, and the cycle continues…like having a pen-pal, except way more life-changing!

We know that most of you are probably pumped to see the new Harry Potter flick this weekend, but there’s an event starting Friday with way more flavour that Bert’s Every Flavor Beans…

 Fiestaval Latin Festival runs from July 17 – July 19 (this weekend!), and it’s the perfect way to celebrate Latin American culture through arts and entertainment.  Created to encourage multiculturalism in Calgary and support the city’s Latin community, Fiestaval happens at Calgary Olympic Plaza this year, and will include some pretty wicked Latin dance and music performances from all over Calgary.  The coolest part?  It’s FREE!

 Even more cool is that you can sign up to volunteer at Fiestaval through Child and Youth Friendly Calgary’s Youth Volunteer Corps (YVC) – just click here!

Need more info?  Check out www.fiestaval.ca to see what else you can expect…