The Eight YDM Principles

Recent YDM Opportunities!
Opportunity Description Important Dates
If you’re interested in the above opportunities, send us an email at tgmag@tgmag.ca or give us a call at (416) 597-8297! Become a YDM Member today! Click here for a news archive
”Rock the Vote: Saskatoon” event
a YDM action plan in action		The event was initiated as a YDM action plan idea inspired by the TYPS/Students Commission: Unite and Ignite Conference in Ottawa. In order to make this event possible, a core partnership was established between Unified Minds, The City of Saskatoon, Youth Launch, CRU Youth Wellness Center, Core Neighborhood Youth Co-op, Nutana Collegiate, Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations and the Metis Nation of Saskatchewan. The event was conceived as a reaction to the many young people who... Read more here. -
Youth consult with the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada (CPHO)Fifteen young people shared their experiences with CPHO Dr. David Butler-Jones. They brought knowledge, ideas and recommendations from the Unite & Ignite conference 2011. See full report. The group also discussed the Healthy Advice consultation. Full report to come. -
YDM Weekly Calls Are you interested in talking to youth, young adults and adult allies across Canada and helping shape the next YDM Conference? We highly recommend any interested YDM member to join us. This is sure to be an awesome learning opportunity for all of us. -
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What is the Young Decision Makers (YDM)?
Young Decision Makers (YDM) is a body of youth, young adults and adult allies from across the country working collaboratively to ensure that youth voice is heard in formal and informal decision making bodies (governments, systems and organizations).

Our Milestones
• Held Canada-wide survey and discussions surrounding youth decision-making
• Organized a national meeting in November 2007 in Muskoka, Ontario to brainstorm YDM's principles and possible model ideas.
• Democratically elected two young people from the Conference to attend the World Fit For Children +5 / United Nations Conference in New York City.
• In February 2008, 150 members of the YDM network helped the government decide what the theme should be this year for the National Child Day taking place in November.
• Leading a national child rights monitoring project in anticipation of Canada’s report to the UN in 2009 on the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
• In April 2008, a regional YDM meeting was held in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan aimed at increasing YDM membership across the country.
• 500 young people were consulted in May and June of 2008 to help create an international youth engagement strategy led by the Canadian government and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
• The network elected two YDM representatives to sit at the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse’s (CCSA’s) National Advisory Group to ensure youth voice and ideas are present at the table.
• Three YDM youth participated in the Learning Partnership’s National Dialogue on Resiliency in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
• We met with more than 110 youth between the ages of 10 and 24 from cities and towns in both northern and southern Ontario. These youth helped us show the Ministry what some of the current attitudes around poverty are.These ideas helped influence a new strategy released by the Government of Ontario that can be found at http://www.growingstronger.ca/.
• We held five discussion groups across the province and worked with these youth to come up with concrete ideas to help youth transition out of care. A final report based on the young peoples input was written and submitted to the government.
• Over 55 youth, young adults and adult allies participated in the third Young Decision Makers meeting from November 20 to 23rd, 2008.
• Began recruiting young people (ages 10 to 29) from each province to sit on the Underserved Youth Forum, an opportunity for young people from across the country to understand how we learn and share knowledge around sexual health.
• YDM was present at the Third World Congress Against Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents which was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and was host to more than 300 youth from around the world, and more than 2500 adults from organizations and governments working to prevent the sexual exploitation of children and youth globally.
• In June, 2011, Tristan, Zoey and Kadane from Youth Launch in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan traveled to Dallas, Texas for the Global Summit on Ending Corporal Punishment and Promoting Positive Discipline. Corporal Punishment is defined as inflicting any unnecessary pain to a child. Corporal Punishment is a global issue and is an important issue to raise awareness on. They presented on Youth Engagement and the Young Decision Makers Model. It was fun and very informative and was all made possible through the Young Decision Makers Network.