Are you looking to get involved in the fight against poverty?

Are you someone who’s passionate about development? What to get involved in the fight against poverty? Well, this is a message to help you in this quest!!

I’m sure you’ve encountered multiple messages, similar to this one, that ask you to join the fight against global poverty. But, doesn’t it seem like such a daunting task? In my experience, I’ve always had a hard time getting involved in poverty reduction and equality without addressing the issues that I see locally, everyday , here in Toronto. So, how can all these considerations be reconciled, and translated into real activism on the ground?

The answer is the Volunteer Action Network! If you haven’t heard of it, here’s a little update. Youth Challenge International is a non-governmental organization that fosters youth development through partnerships between Canadian and International young volunteers. YCI sends groups of Canadian youth volunteers to various program countries (including Guyana, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and more) to work with youth in these host countries in order to address the local development issues that they face. However, YCI understands that development issues are not just a symptom of countries in the South. That is where the Volunteer Action Network comes in!

YCI’s Volunteer Action Network facilitates youth-identified grassroots projects aimed at development creative ideas and policy solutions to pressing global and local issues and provides a supportive platform from which to nourish those ideas into action! Each team is made up of 5-8 volunteers working on a specific goal or objective over the course of a year. Time commitment varies – there is a lot of flexibility with this network! Ultimately, the aim is to develop a greater understanding about global development issues, but also to produce a distinct contribution through action and an output.

The focus of each group varies, and includes food security, HIV/AIDS, and Canadian foreign policy. The group that this message is concerning is poverty, or as it has been recently named, the Partnership on Poverty. This group hopes to bring together local and global issues, and prioritize both. It is a place where issues like fair trade, homelessness, access to resources and others will be tackled, discussed and deconstructed. Then, various events and actions will be planned, according to time commitment and desires of the group, in order to properly address the issues that the Partnership has discussed and agreed upon.

So, we are looking for between 5-8 volunteers, who can donate a portion of their time (how much is up to you) to the fight for equality. Before we can even get started planning events and actions, we need the commitment of people like you

Contact Info:
lbrewer18@hotmail.com