Five students and two youth centre staff are off to Ottawa to attend the four-day Unite and Ignite Annual Conference hosted by Youth Centres Canada with other students from all over the country.

Dryden Youth Centre staff Megan Pinette and Steven Patey will be chaperoning Tristen Wise, Kale Greer, Matt Huntus, Gord and Lisa Oombash to Ottawa to attend the leadership training conference, beginning March 24 and ending March 27.

The students attended the TYPS youth leadership training session in held at the Dryden arena January 13, which qualified them for attendance at the annual conference.  Topics of the conference will include a very broad base of sessions, including substance abuse, youth suicide, youth homelessness, aboriginal youth, bullying, photography, identity issues, youth strategies, building youth communities, and personality dimensions.

Friday, March 25 will see a visit to Parliament Hill, with a special experience for the Dryden youth.  Kenora-Rainy River MP, Greg Rickford, will be escorting the local group of seven into the House to attend Question Period.  Rickford will be making a statement at QP, but unfortunately, the group will not be able to meet the Prime Minister.

This is TYPS~Youth Centres Canada’s annual national conference, held this year in collaboration with the Student Commission and Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement and are expecting at least 300 youth and their adult allies from every province and territory.The basis of the conference is for the youth to learn new skills, meet people who can help them and their local youth centre, meet people they can help, network, talk to politicians, meet funders and partners, strategize and most importantly have fun.

By Ally Dunham