About

Youthocracy is an interactive website for young people in British Columbia. It is an experiment in mobilizing youth to care about democracy. It wants to ask YOU some questions, like:

Do youth care about politics and voting?  Should they?  Why or why not?

What do you care about?

Does your voice matter? Can you be a force for positive change in the world?

If you are a British Columbian aged 15-17 and want to have a voice, or are interested in what people your age think about issues of the day, this site is for you.

Our promises to you

Youthocracy is for young people in BC.

Youthocracy has only one agenda: to promote youth engagement in civic society and youth participation in the democratic process

Youthocracy is non-partisan

Youthocracy will strive to promote the full and free exchange of views, comments and ideas among youth

Youthocracy will protect your personal privacy and will not be used for private, partisan or marketing purposes

Youthocracy will have a voice – what you say and how you vote will be communicated to Parliamentarians and those in power

Background

This website started with conversations between Elections BC (EBC) and the Provincial Capital Commission (PCC), following the provincial election in May 2009. Why are fewer people voting now than 30 years ago? Why are young people (age 18-24) less likely to vote than their parents or grandparents were? We have statistics forever on questions like these, but we don’t have any answers. There are lots of studies, but still no answers.

It’s not that young people aren’t involved – they’re involved in all kinds of things. Charities, protests, academics, sports, performing and visual arts. And now, they’re involved in social networking. It’s a new phenomenon to us old folks. To teenagers, it’s just life.

So instead of adding another study to the pile, we decided to start a project instead. To find out what issues are important to young people, and to use their own tools of engagement to – well – engage them. Or rather, to understand how they engage each other.

So. What’s important to you, anyway? What do you think about this issue, or that issue? To answer questions like these, in November 2009 we held focus groups with students from three high schools in Greater Victoria – Lambrick Park, Reynolds, and Vic High. We took the issues that they selected as being important to them, and we held a vote on which one they would choose to have debated by the BC Youth Parliament. The debate, which focused on merit-based vs need-based student aid, took place on December 30 in the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. After a spirited and thought-provoking debate, the resolution was defeated. You can add your comments by clicking on the topic “post-secondary education”.

Where do we go from here? Well, that depends on you. If you take part by giving us your opinion on topics, adding your comments to the forums, and voting on the questions that are posted, then we’ll start taking the project long-term. And if that happens – the success will be entirely due to you!