The York Youth Coalition (YYC) strategic planning session was comprised of two full day sessions. The first session took place on April 7th, 2011. The session was for both youth and residents that was facilitated by Garland Yates. On April 13th, 2011 the second session engaged YYC organization members that had frontline workers and some manager’s participation. This first session of was based on focus activities questionnaires and to engage residents and youth on the direction and priorities that would steer the coalition’s activities. The service providers’ strategic planning session used the Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat (SWOT) analysis to engage frontline workers and managers. In addition, an asset mapping exercise was conducted to find out what already exists and what was missing in order to identify how to use the coalition strategically to best support youth and residents in Weston-Mount Dennis area. Further, the SWOT analysis was used as a tool to outline the coalition’s direction and priorities for decision making, allocation of resources, collaboration and commitment building. In brief, both sessions were successful and the results identified a number of opportunities. As many organizations in the Weston- Mount Dennis (WDM) Area have faced recent funding cutbacks, it was evident that the coalition’s presence was needed because the organizations flourished through the network activities. There is a resounding need for the coalition that encompasses youth, residents and service providers to advocate for youth to create impactful change in the community. Sharing of resources, building authentic partnerships and authentically engaging residents and youth were identified as key directions for the coalition can take action in the coming years. FOCUS GROUP: RESIDENT & YOUTH YYC tries to work very close with residents and youth as mandated in the terms of reference. The inclusion of resident and youth voices was very important to the strategic planning process. Garland Yates, an internationally acclaimed consultant who has worked with the United Way on resident engagement initiatives across the City, led the YYC resident and youth strategic planning session. With the support from United Way, Social Planning Toronto and the City of Toronto, the session had more than 25 participants. Methodology Garland Yates facilitated the session by posing a series of questions to the resident and youth participants. The following are questions and responses to the questions from the focus group sessions.
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