Greater Vancouver Association of the Deaf

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GVAD Wants YOUth!

Vision

The Greater Vancouver Association of the Deaf (GVAD) Youth Program is in place because GVAD recognizes the enormous value of deaf and hard of hearing youth ages 18 to 30 in Vancouver and throughout British Columbia. In order to serve these youth, we will strive towards developing projects and partnerships that directly benefit the deaf and hard of hearing youth community in social, cultural, educational, and recreational matters. The ultimate vision of the Youth Program is to prepare young deaf and hard of hearing youth for continuing the work of GVAD, and becoming the future leaders of the deaf and hard of hearing community in British Columbia.

Goals

In order to work towards this vision when developing projects and partnerships, GVAD Youth Program will keep four goals in mind: Leadership and Collaboration, Activism, Awareness and Service.

GOAL 1—Leadership and Collaboration: Teach Deaf youth how to: enlist other members of the Deaf community in a common goal, work together in a team, carry out effective problem solving, reach a consensus and create partnerships.
GOAL 2—Awareness: Encourage Deaf youth to broaden their perspectives and become familiar with the history of the Deaf community, American Sign Language, Deaf culture, and with issues that currently impact the Deaf community from a local to global level.
GOAL 3—Activism: Awaken a sense of social justice in Deaf youth.
GOAL 4—Service: Teach Deaf youth that when they give to the community, the community gives back.

An exciting idea!

The Youth Program will strive towards providing programs that meet one or all of our goals. Keep an eye on the GVAD website, and see what we're up to now and in the future! In fact, we have created a proposal for an exciting program that we want to implement in the spring of 2010: a Deaf Youth Leadership Course!

The Greater Vancouver Association of the Deaf (GVAD) will provide a leadership course for 10 Deaf individuals between the ages of 18 and 25 in British Columbia. The course will be comprised of once-monthly weekend workshops, beginning in May 2010 and ending April 2011, for a total of 12 workshops. The completion of this course will lead to an official GVAD board-approved Deaf Youth Leadership Certificate. This certificate will qualify students for sponsored travel to the 16th World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf, which will be hosted July 14th to 24th 2011 in Durban, South Africa.

The workshops will be led by qualified Deaf professionals from throughout British Columbia and Canada. The workshops will cover a variety of educational and practical topics including: organizational leadership, parliamentary procedure, public speaking, group discussion, fundraising tactics, job-seeking skills, Deaf rights and activism, as well as Deaf culture and community issues from a local to a global level. In addition to attending the workshops, three other requisites for certification are: first, forty (40) hours of community service, 20 of which must be within the Deaf community (10 at the GVAD Corn Party in August 2010, and 10 elsewhere); second, the completion and presentation of an individual project of the student’s choosing; and third, participation in a student-collaborated fundraiser, which will directly supplement the cost of travel to the World Congress.

Do you like our idea?

If you like what you’ve read above, go to our Contact page and ask for more information. Also if you would like to donate towards our program and this exciting endeavor we are about to take on, please go to the home page and click on the Canadahelps.org link!