Women and the power of influence

• A Bilingual Website Entirely Run by Youth

In collaboration with Mila Younes, Status of Women Canada

As part of a project funded by the Women's Program at Status of Women Canada in collaboration with other youth groups, some forty young women aged between 14 and 25 from across the country met in Ottawa around the theme Le pouvoir, c'est osé. The objective was to set out the challenges facing women and the tools they would need to help them exert more influence in their community and elsewhere. The seven following priorities were defined during the meeting: shattering myths about feminism, the revolution of the feminine image, women and politics, challenges facing superwomen in 2007, violence against women, the immigrant woman in Canada, and, finally, employment equity and women in power. The young women returned to their respective regions equipped with tools and mechanisms to make the changes they want to make in their communities. This event was organized by the Alliance des femmes de la francophonie canadienne (AFFC), which receives ongoing support from Canadian Heritage. Visit the AFFC's Web site at www.affc.ca.

A Bilingual Website Entirely Run by Youth

In collaboration with Jo-Anne Lecompte, Royal Canadian Mounted Police

In order to help young people stay safe in their communities, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) implemented its "deal.org" Program. Now in its tenth year, it boasts a bilingual website entirely run by youth, which supports the RCMP Youth Strategic Priority. The Program aims at encouraging youth throughout Canada to make healthy, informed decisions and to get involved in their communities. The revamped website, which was launched in January 2006, generates an astounding 1.1 million visits a month. It addresses a variety of subjects with feature presentations, fast facts and moderated online blogs on issues of importance to youth, including bullying, Internet safety, impaired driving and youth gangs. As Canada's national police force, the RCMP has a presence in all provinces and territories and is promoting the deal.org website. The Directorate of Official Languages, in collaboration with the National Youth Services, has presented the "deal.org" programs to youth organizations in official-language minority communities and other federal institutions at the meeting of national coordinators responsible for the implementation of section 41 of the Official Languages Act, held on October 4, 2007. It is also promoting the deal.org website at other interdepartmental meetings.

The deal.org team will be going coast-to-coast in the near future to consult youth, promote the website and recruit youth for a national advisory committee. This will include one stop in Quebec and two stops in New Brunswick, to ensure coverage in both Anglophone and Francophone communities. For more information, please visit www.deal.org.

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