Positions available: 2-3

Words hold incredible power. This project will work with the local Ethno - Cultural and marginalized youth of Central Alberta to create short video diaries. Our youth will share their thoughts, experiences, concerns, knowledge and struggles during Covid-19.

This project will measure the process of change pre – Covid to current world to post Covid.

This project will be shared with the local communities for them to gain insight as the youth develop resiliency against external stresses like Covid-19.

The aim of this project will empower our local youth as well to provide for them a platform allowing them the agency to share their daily experiences with other young people that will allow them to connect and create a digital community. This project with the approval of the young people will be shared with local community partners, school boards, health services and relevant civic organizations.

This project will be youth led under the umbrella and support from Ubuntu – Mobilizing Central Alberta.

We believe youth should be engaged and empowered to identify and address stressors in their community especially those who are part of the Ethno-Cultural community.

What pandemic-related need in the community is this project meeting?

To state that pandemics are stressful will be to minimize the effects of this catastrophe. Since the start of Covid - 19, the youth have been navigating through the uncertainties, they have been knowingly and unknowingly dealing with mental health, loss of everyday routine, not always being able to connect with their friends and missing their daily life activities such as sports and other activities.

This project will be an outlet for the youth to share their thoughts, concerns and the changes they want to see in their community moving forward past Covid-19. This project will give them agency and a platform to share what they have been feeling to spread the message in their communities, and at the same time start a thread of shared message among youth in their community and circle.

This project will capture a moment in history of their lives, which they have never before experienced. Ubuntu-Mobilizing Central Alberta will give them the platform and the opportunity to capture their thoughts in this moment. In addition, young people with special needs or those who are part of The LGBTQ21A+ were the most severely impacted during the pandemic and we want their voices, stories, and experiences to also be heard, amplified and supported.

The videos will be intimate thereby, allowing the youth the freedom to be vulnerable and candidly share their thoughts. They won’t be censored and won’t have to confront the added stress of a live audience as only the speaker and the crew will be present. We also recognize the need for more ethno-cultural young people to see themselves and each other. To see their faces, hear their own voices, listen to their own stories and the shared experiences of their friends from Central Alberta will present them with the fact that they too matter.

We see our project shaping the post-Covid future by the fact that we recognize the need to add our voice to the conversation. Being that Central Alberta is made up of mainly rural communities we want to continue shaping the future that we want. Not allowing the large cities of Calgary and Edmonton to speak on behalf of all of Alberta is a huge step. Digital media, print media, publications and other forms of media usually shape conversations around the voices of metropolitan youth but Covid-19 has shown us that our needs are not the same and they are not equal. Covid-19 had raised the voices of many who have been marginalized in Canada and it has allowed voices that were often silenced to find it within themselves to speak up for themselves and make demands. In the future we see the Ethno Cultural youth of Central Alberta continue to voice their demands and let it be known that they too have stories to share.