Joyce Shum Yan Yue
Bacala, Alexandra Rose Callanta
On 30th July, 2018, the Bronze Visioneers
visited the Toronto City Hall and participated in the mock council debate
activity organized by the Vision Youth Leadership Program. Franco Ng, who
worked as an assistant of a city councilor, introduced to the Visioneers the
history, management structure, and daily operation of City Hall, as well as
sharing with them the jobs and responsibilities of a city councilor. After this
visit, the youths learnt that it is possible for anybody to make changes in
their city. Franco also hoped that they would be courageous to voice out their
opinion and raise their enthusiasm in taking part in political events.
Apart from visiting the City Hall, the Visioneers were
able to experience being a city councilor and the public that speak in the
council by having a mock council debate. The topic for the debate was “Should
the bike lane in Bloor Street be kept?” The youths were divided into 5 groups
and each group took one role in the debate. The 5 roles included cyclists that
support keeping the bike lane, residents living near Bloor Street who are
either for or against the bike lane, and restaurants and shop representatives
that are for or against the bike lane. Franco and other counsellors took the
role of the mayor and city councilors, who asked questions regarding the
arguments made by each team as well as ensuring that the council meeting was
held solemnly and smoothly. Rationality and creativity were shown in the
speech made by each team and they were able to consider the issue from
different perspectives. While making a brilliant speech may put one’s stance in
an advantageous position, being able to answer the questions raised by
councilors with statistics and information can as well make one’s arguments
more persuasive, which is more likely to receive more votes from the
councilors.
In this mock council debate, more than 2 hours were spent
in discussing the motion of keeping the bike lane in the mock debate. In
reality, councilors are facing mounting pressure as they need to deal with
different opinions and proposals from the public of 44 districts. Nevertheless,
after experiencing this mock council debate, Visioneers understood that
politics is not a tedious topic to study. Instead, it is a major way to achieve
one’s ambitions and make changes in their community. It is hoped that they
would get involved in more political events in the future and bring new blood
to the political sector.
Founded in 2001, Vision Youth Leadership Program is a
non-profit organization that aims to help youths develop life skills, nurture
their social skills, and prepare them for a successful future. Different from
the traditional teaching approaches which educate them mainly through academic
knowledge, Vision Youth emphasizes on exploring the potential of our
participants, enhancing their social skills and organizing outdoor activities
which allow them to stay close to nature.
Furthermore, Vision Youth provides a good learning
experience for the participants, ensuring their communication skills, public
speaking skills, leadership skills, interpersonal skills, collaboration skills
and self-confidence can be strengthened. It is also our goal that students would
understand and love nature better and that their social and political
awareness, and personal responsibility can be raised after taking part in our
program.
Vision Youth Leadership Program is now recruiting new
participants for 2019. Students aged 14 or above in July 2019 are all welcome
to join our program.
For more information about Vision Youth Leadership
Program, please visit our website at www.visionyouth.ca,
or Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/visionyouth/,
or email to info@visionyouth.ca, or contact us at 416-800-4040.
For more information about our past activities, feel free
to visit our blog http://www.visionyouthblog.blogspot.ca/.
Blog posts in both Chinese and English version are available for readers.
