We had our meeting last night for Health Engaging Youth, as we do every week. We had a different energy yesterday though. It's growing each time and is a fairly new project that will continue hopefully for a long time. The New Mentality is a project sponsored by Children's Mental Health Ontario. It's amazing that there are groups starting up all around Ontario to create a youth-driven network, anti-stigma activities, and youth participation in the health system. We are becoming a strong local connection for mental health issues and body-mind solutions with youth. Our conference is being planned for late October and we are having a good time planning it. There are about eight of us at each meeting and we're run out of the Multicultural Youth Centre. I'm hoping that there will be even bigger events to reach more of Thunder Bay after our conference at a local Native high school with 75 young people. We have already hosted a successful coffee night with local youth talent at our centre. It generated interest in the project and I think everyone involved is so interesting. Even if I go to the meeting tired, I gain energy from our outpouring and brainstorming of ideas and planning. I am excited for the future of the project and while we are planning to release our presentation in June 08 at the conference in Mississauga, the project must be continued as it is so important.

We have the amazing opportunity this year to have positions for Youth Engagement Coordinators at the Multicultural Youth Centre. I am really excited to be involved. I think it is almost a dream for us to have the support of an organization that I love so much and have thought was powerful and inspiring for a long time. I've believed in the potential of the organization from my heart and I have seen it grow so large and there have been so much good and so many benefits that come of it. I am open to any ideas from young people and motivated to dedicate my time and energy to the creating local connections project.

The principles that guide me and what the youth centre has taught me give me so much hope. It's great how we've been encouraged to be creative and proactive. I am growing with every new opportunity and find it beneficial to find pockets of youth with similar interests. Art in Thunder Bay can be a tool to express our feelings as young people. There are so many organizations that can work with us on our pursuits that I feel support in every aspect of my dreams. It is now up to us to make it happen and we can do it!

My job as marketing assistant at the Multicultural Youth Centre is so great. I love how there is never any pressure to do what my boss tells me and it is all up to me to decide what to do. Everyone there is in agreement that we have the best adult ally around. My role there is not insignificant though. I've been there for ten years, always taking on new projects and sharing new ideas and opportunities. It's taken me to many places as work and volunteer. I'm grateful for the contacts I've made and the conferences and tranining I've had. I've liked most of the jobs I've had, but I always say this one is my favorite. I have the amazing opportunity to participate in other opportunities related to my work there, but I always go back to the Youth Centre. In the winter I'll be doing my Recreation and Leisure placement there, and I'm even chosing a course after I'm finished relating more to the centre; I'm taking Social Service Worker.

I always try to get everyone I know involved and most people never really leave. I hope that I can stay a long time and really participate in youth action for my whole life. It's important to me to keep young people in the loop, alive with motivation and inspired to follow their passions. I've learned so much in my life already and most of it is because of the youth centre, even if indirectly.

Moffat, the Executive Director, always say young people need a space and I wonder how I can ever tell him how much I appreciate what he does for that place and how he has been my respected mentor for all these years. If I ever find a way, I'll have to share it with many people I meet who think the same of him.

Smiles are what brings you to the youth centre and meaningful impact is what keeps you there.