CityHive Vancouver

These times of political uncertainty call on youth to organize their communities to work on climate action while CEOs and Governments focus on profits and unsustainable growth 🔥⏳ If you’re paralyzed by the climate distress, taking action with CityHive Vancouver truly helps 🪷I promise & If you’re an immigrant or newcomer this opportunity is for you ⭐️

📍CityStudio, 1800 Spyglass Place CityHive Vancouver & us know how easy it is to feel hopeless and frustrated, not knowing how we as youth or newcomers can actually stir things up and enact change in our communities 🏛️ We acknowledge these barriers and want to make it easier for folks to get involved! 🤝 This is your opportunity to empower yourself to be an agent of climate action and change in your community and to become more civically engaged, all while getting paid! 💸 ✊Let’s bring youth and immigrant experiences to the climate conversation. 🗣️ Together, we’ll build climate action plans, deepen community connections, and amplify our voices to become real change makers. 💬🌎🙌 4 WORKSHOP SERIES: November 24 & 30 (12pm-2pm), December 3 & 10 (5pm-7pm) Open to all youth (18-30ish) Sign up in here by November 22: https://lnkd.in/gwW6eart See you there! 🌞 Jose Reyeros Lukas Troni Mackenzie Kuenz Bryanna-Karina Russell Sofya Babak Aoki Y. Luiza Salek

Glad to have hosted, coordinated, and facilitated a CityHive Vancouver : CityShapers in Communities workshop series with the talented community at Movement: Metro Vancouver Transit Riders! Keep an eye out for future events!

🚀 CityHive at the IAP2 North American Conference: Building a Sustainable Future Through Youth Engagement 🚀 At October’s IAP2 North American Conference in Ottawa, CityHive led a powerful session on youth engagement for public and community engagement practitioners from across North America. Our workshop explored strategies for centering youth in civic processes to foster resilient, future-focused communities. Here’s what we covered: 💡 Proven strategies for integrating youth perspectives into civic and institutional planning to drive sustainable, long-term impact. 🛠️ Practical tools and engagement methods led by Executive Director Rowan Gentleman-Sylvester and Engagement Manager Miley Leong, designed to meaningfully include youth voices in public processes and build ongoing, reciprocal relationships. Our session wasn’t just a training; it was an essential dialogue on inclusive practices that can help municipalities, corporations, and nonprofits strengthen their connections with youth and expand their community impact. 🌟 Testimonial Spotlight 🌟 Tamara Scott from the City of New Westminster shares: "CityHive has been an invaluable partner in our Youth Climate Action Microgrant Project. Their expertise and commitment to a youth-led approach helped us reach young leaders across the city. Thanks to their support, these leaders are tackling climate change and feeling inspired to deepen their community involvement." Interested in learning more or bringing this training to your organization? Reach out to our Youth Engagement Expert at miley@cityhive.ca to discuss how we can support your goals for community and public engagement. #YouthEngagement #SustainableCommunities #PublicEngagement #InclusiveLeadership #CityHive #IAP2

I'm so thrilled that this posting is up and I encourage those of you in the youth environmental/social justice/educational leadership space to consider applying, even and especially if you think you don't necessarily meet every criteria. I'm really proud to have been part of developing the shared leadership structure at The Starfish because I wholeheartedly believe that it's a more supportive, sustainable, and equitable way to lead organizations.

Last week, I had the pleasure of hosting a 3 hour training with Rowan Gentleman-Sylvester on 'Youth-led Solutions: The Crucial Role of Youth Engagement in Shaping our Futures' at the IAP2 North American Conference in Ottawa. IAP2 Canada We had a full room of keen, enthusiastic engagement practitioners from all over Turtle Island that were generous enough to share their sunny Thursday afternoon with us to talk all things youth engagement. Over 3 hours, we discussed the case for youth engagement, tangible ways to address barriers in engagement, and practiced how to be creative and think outside of our 'engagement sandbox'. I also learned a lot through attending a range of sessions from how to engage children and youth as young as 4 years old (Caroline Schindlert) to the role of AI and collaborative intelligence in public engagement (Khatereh Baharikhoob) to how to integrate play in high stakes engagements (Precious Ile, MA, PMP, CEC, CP3). It was also such a highlight to be able to reconnect with old pals and colleagues like Meghan Toal from my time at BCOHRC, as well as cheer on our friends at SFU's Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue as they presented both their sessions. If I missed you at the conference or if you want to connect further about our youth engagement trainings, please don't hesitate to reach out here or at miley@cityhive.ca CityHive Vancouver

When we engage authentically with young people, we are investing in their civic literacy and encouraging their lifelong participation in the communities they will one day lead. This is one of my favourite takeaways from this year’s incredible IAP2 Canada conference that wrapped in Ottawa yesterday. I’ll be honest, my main reason for attending was totally selfish - to meet other consultants like me - ones who are amazing at what they do but want to serve their communities more effectively by partnering with other smart, diverse, and skilled experts. And I did come away with some pretty special relationships. But I was also blown away at many of the sessions I attended, including the first one, put on by Rowan Gentleman-Sylvester and Miley Leong 梁伟祺 from Cityhive in Vancouver. This summer especially, I have spent a lot of time with young people, as I worked on the engagement project with campers and alumni from Camp Stephens. And I was glad to learn that my approach was best practice. However, this duo really inspired me to think about how to do that kind of work in a more intentional way next time - in a way that builds community rather than just a database of information. As an example, Rowan and Miley talked about their approach to build more time into youth engagement to also include relevant education to help them understand how public policy decisions are influenced and made. This helps them become better advocates for the communities they want. Rather than brushing them off as uninformed, we can invest in their leadership development and help them grow into our community’s next leaders. So if you’re thinking about it, don’t just stick one youth on an advisory committee with a bunch of well-versed middle aged folks like me. Instead, help them be effective at those tables. The work they are doing in Vancouver is pretty inspiring, and Mayor Scott Gillingham and our city could only benefit from more youth informing public policy. After all, they’re the ones who will be our community’s next leaders as we age out. I tagging a few people who were in the room. What was your favourite takeaway from this session? What will you do differently when you get home? Stacee Adams Duke Richardson

Back at home reflecting on a great trip to Ottawa for the IAP2 North American Conference hosted by IAP2 Canada (with bonus friends and family visits). Some reflections from Day 1⬇ Programming on the first day was a series of half-day workshops, I'm patting myself on the back for the excellent choice of joining CityHive Vancouver's on youth engagement facilitated by Rowan Gentleman-Sylvester and Miley Leong 梁伟祺. If you don't know CityHive, they are on a mission to transform the way that young people are engaged in shaping their cities and in civic processes. They do this through civic literacy programs for youth and consulting services for organizations looking to meaningfully engage youth in their processes. Miley and Rowan shared insights from CityHive's deep experience and pointed us to supportive research. They got us moving with a human spectrogram exercise and created a space for interesting and productive discussions in small groups. I came away with a lot of ideas, both for Roots & Rivers Consulting, and for some upcoming volunteer work with CivicTechWR as we imagine what the next round of our election information website will look like. Also, because we had that time to connect and work together, I made a great bunch of buds from all kinds of worlds (architecture! consumer protection! libraries!) that I was checking in with over the rest of the conference. Photo: Scribbled notes on a piece of white paper from the session, a collaboration with Christina (her writing is the legible kind!). The box designates limitations. Things outside the box are constraints, things inside the box are ways we are already working within those constraints.

🚀 Miley’s Tip of the Day: Don’t just engage youth on so-called ‘youth issues.’ Too often, young people are siloed into areas like parks and rec or social media, but their insights extend far beyond. Youth have valuable perspectives on climate change, housing and affordability, public safety, and more. By limiting their involvement to specific topics, you miss out on a key stakeholder group that can elevate decision-making and drive impactful change. Want to learn how to meaningfully include youth in a range of critical issues? Join CityHive’s Youth Engagement Training Series! Gain expert insights, practical strategies, and real-life examples on how to engage youth beyond the usual topics. 🌱  ✨ CityHive Youth Engagement Training Series offers sliding-scale pricing from $25-$100 per workshop, with limited FREE seats for BIPOC, 2SLGBTQIA+, youth, and disabled participants. Register: https://lnkd.in/dUXc2Qj5 Who is this series for?   This training series is perfect for:   🔹 Engagement professionals, planners, youth workers, and community members starting to engage youth and looking to understand youth engagement as a primer for projects or programs.   🔹 Public engagement professionals working in municipal or institutional contexts who want to broaden their audiences to meaningfully include young people.   🔹 Grassroots and nonprofit organizations aiming to design youth programs that foster leadership and drive positive community change beyond the program’s end. 💬 Have questions? Ask Miley anything in the comments 👇 and join us for this essential training series! https://lnkd.in/dUXc2Qj5

Exciting news! 🎉 This fall, CityHive is launching a virtual training series on uplifting young voices and creating meaningful youth engagement. 🌟 #YouthEngagement #CityHive #LetsMakeAnImpact