YouthREX

An Ontario where shared #knowledge is transformed into positive impact for all youth!

[YouthREX @REXforYouth]

Happy Holidays from YouthREX!

[YouthREX @REXforYouth]

This month’s update to the #KnowledgeHub introduces more than 25 new resources that support learning, research, and action related to youth wellbeing, digital practice, and equitable youth work!

Explore the full collection: https://t.co/C0eE47Hyb4

[YouthREX @REXforYouth]

Our latest REX Blog article highlights three practical solutions to foster stronger connections between schools, after-school programs, and caregivers, including group home staff, to provide youth with continuity & safety.

Read the article on REX Blog: https://t.co/RYo2rb0rEW

[YouthREX @REXforYouth]

Today marks the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. We’re spotlighting a report from the Department of Justice Canada, “Toward Transformative Change: An Implementation Plan for Canada’s Black Justice Strategy”.

Read the report: https://t.co/YehtKv0Uwh

[YouthREX @REXforYouth]

Our latest REX Blog article highlights the mental health and wellbeing of Black youth in Ontario, drawing on findings from the Ontario Youth Sector Compass, a community-engaged research project led by YouthREX.

Read the full article on REX Blog: https://t.co/iyd6yjgbww

[YouthREX @REXforYouth]

Today marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the start of 16 Days of Activism. Visit YouthREX's Knowledge Hub to deepen your understanding of preventing and addressing gender-based violence: https://t.co/hadrZVbQR4

[YouthREX @REXforYouth]

In our latest blog repost from EdCanNetwork, Dr. Sean Lessard encourages us to create conversational spaces, move with intention, and embrace uncertainty in response to the voices and lived experiences of Indigenous youth.

📖 Read more on the REX Blog: https://t.co/ZKz2fGsnbt

[YouthREX @REXforYouth]

For this week’s #KnowledgeHubPick, we’re sharing our research summary, “Afrophobia in Canadian Institutions: Youth Marginality, System Professionals and Systemic Barriers.”

Learn more: https://t.co/NwKaBTLOjc

[YouthREX @REXforYouth]

October 17 marks the seventh anniversary of cannabis legalization in Canada. Youth workers are in a unique position to provide important information to young people who may be using—or thinking about using—cannabis, and YouthREX has resources to support you in this work:

📲 YouthREX's What's With Weed? platform features more than 40 youth-friendly resources about cannabis, including its effects, safer use practices, facts on legalization, as well as its history and social impacts.

Take your learning further with two free, self-paced, online certificates:
🍃 Cannabis and Youth: A professional development certificate that provides youth workers with evidence-based information on the health, social, and legal risks associated with cannabis use.
🧠 Cannabis and Mental Health: A comprehensive suite of online resources exploring a range of issues surrounding the mental health impacts of cannabis, at the individual, community, and societal levels—created by youth, for youth.

Want to read more or register for these certifications? Visit https://t.co/stSM2AOdDe

[YouthREX @REXforYouth]

FREE ONLINE TEACH-IN
‘Bubbling Up’: Radical Advocacy with/for Indigenous Youth

📅 Tuesday, November 4, 2025 | 🕐 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM EST

Join us for this online Teach-In with Dr. Sean Lessard, award-winning educator and former youth worker, teacher, and counselor. Sean’s community-engaged scholarship focuses on innovative educational programs and Indigenous youth empowerment.

Sean will reflect on his work alongside Indigenous youth, a Pedagogy of the Heart – an educational philosophy centered on empathy, critical reflection, and social justice – and a ‘radical advocacy’ that amplifies the voices and lived experiences of Indigenous youth.

In this inspiring session, learn how Sean breaks down barriers, fosters imagination, and cultivates genuine connections through relational ethics and the co-construction of knowledge.

✨ Don’t miss this opportunity to learn, reflect, and engage!

Register for free today: https://t.co/7TidqROVW6
.
.
.
#YouthWork #IndigenousYouth #RadicalAdvocacy #YouthEmpowerment #PedagogyOfTheHeart #SocialJusticeEducation #CommunityEngagedLearning #YouthLeadership #IndigenousEducation #YouthVoices

[YouthREX @REXforYouth]

Today is World Mental Health Day. This year’s theme highlights the urgent need to support the mental health and psychosocial wellbeing of people affected by humanitarian emergencies.

Now more than ever, global crises that once felt far away and distant are made more urgent and intimate by social media, which humanize the impacts of political decisions and personalize human suffering. For our #KnowledgeHubPick, we’re sharing one of our Evidence Briefs, “Seven Strategies for Supporting Youth in Moments of Global Unrest.” This resource outlines practical ways to support young people during times of global unrest, including adopting trauma-informed approaches, centering youth voices and experiences, providing advocacy training, and more:

1️⃣ Use trauma-informed approaches.
2️⃣ Create space for discussion and promote diverse perspectives.
3️⃣ Promote digital literacy.
4️⃣ Encourage youth to bear witness safely.
5️⃣ Model and promote radical empathy.
6️⃣ Support youth engagement in advocacy and activism.
7️⃣ Provide advocacy training.

🔗 Check out the full Evidence Brief: https://t.co/bP0zpZTzAC
.
.
.
.
#WorldMentalHealthDay #YouthMentalHealth #MentalHealthAwareness #MentalHealthMatters #YouthWork #SocialJustice #YouthVoices #YouthWellbeing #KnowledgeHubPick

[YouthREX @REXforYouth]

🚨#FREEWEBINAR ALERT!

We’re excited to host Dr. Mary Goitom and Dr. Ahmed Ali Ilmi for a conversation on how Black diasporic youth in Canada navigate anti-Black racism, identity, and belonging across local and transnational contexts.

They’ll share their research findings on how diasporic youth exercise agency, resilience, and world-building in the face of systemic barriers, and raise important questions on how we can create supportive spaces that centre Black youth, validate hybrid cultural identities, and recognize transnational connections as sources of strength.

🗓 Wednesday, October 29, 2025
⏰ 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT
💻 Online via Zoom
👉 Register now to be part of the conversation: https://t.co/zfVCjchgak
.
.
.
#BlackDiasporicYouth #BlackYouthVoices #YouthLeadership #YouthResilience #YouthWellbeing #AntiBlackRacism #YouthAgency #YouthWork #OnYouth #YouthWorkers #Youth #ResearchToAction

[YouthREX @REXforYouth]

In our latest blog post from @ConversationUS, “Reconciliation Includes Recognizing Residential Schools Are Not the Only Colonial Atrocity", Wade Paul encourages to confront a broader history of colonial violence against Indigenous peoples.

Paul writes, “This year, in addition to learning more about Residential Schools, I invite you to learn about some of the many other culturally devastating practices: the Potlatch Ban, the Sixties Scoop, the Millennium Scoop, the forced and coerced sterilization of Indigenous women and the contemporary concerns Indigenous Nations and groups face today as a result of this history.”

Read the full article: https://t.co/ErJs1nfuiQ

[YouthREX @REXforYouth]

September 30th is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day.

In 2023, YouthREX had the opportunity to bring together social work students from the School of Indigenous Studies at Laurentian University, the School of Social Work at York University, and the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto to attend Kent Monkman’s exhibit Being Legendary at the Royal Ontario Museum. Led by Dr. Joey-Lynn Wabie, YouthREX’s Academic Director for Indigenous Initiatives (and Assistant Professor, School of Indigenous Relations at Laurentian University), the visit was followed by sharing circles to reflect on Monkman’s art and its connections to social work, social justice, education, and reconciliation.

Today we reflect on the ongoing impacts of colonialism, the legacy of residential schools, and the intergenerational trauma that continues to impact Indigenous communities. We also recognize our shared responsibility to centre Indigenous cultures, languages, and ways of knowing as we commit to meaningful truth and reconciliation.

📺 Watch the full clip Being Legendary // Honouring Our Histories & Identities on REXTV

______

About Kent Monkman's "Being Legendary" at the Royal Ontario Museum:

Curated by Cree artist Kent Monkman, Being Legendary presented an installation of new original paintings by the artist alongside cultural belongings from collections at the ROM. Interpreted by Monkman’s shape-shifting, time-travelling, gender-fluid alter ego, the legendary being Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, the exhibition depicted how deeply Indigenous knowledge is embedded in the lands of Turtle Island. Cree and other Indigenous peoples have carried this knowledge in stories, songs, and artworks since time immemorial. Through the power of storytelling, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle reframes the forced interruptions of the colonial project on Turtle Island and honours leaders in the community who shine a light forward for future generations.

[YouthREX @REXforYouth]

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Svetlana Jović for our webinar, Youth Voices in Dialogue: Multivoiced Narratives of Power, Belonging, and Change. Svetlana shared insights from her research on socio-cognitive development among youth navigating poverty, migration, and cultural diversity.

Today we’re highlighting a Research Summary of an article by Dr. Jović for our #KnowledgeHubPick — Calling Out Injustice: Youth from Differently Privileged Backgrounds Narrate About Injustice.

This research explores how different levels of privilege influence the ways youth perceive and express social injustice.

The findings remind youth workers to prioritize critical awareness and empathy. Engaging with how youth from diverse backgrounds narrate injustice allows practitioners to:

✅ Validate voices that may feel silenced
✅ Address power imbalances
✅ Foster spaces of justice, equity, and belonging

Youth work can become not just a site of care, but a platform for meaningful change!

Read More (https://t.co/1UiEGvim36) ➡️
.
.
.
.

#YouthResearch #YouthWork #YouthVoices #EquityInYouthWork #SocialJustice #YouthWellbeing #KnowledgeHubPick

[YouthREX @REXforYouth]

Are you a youth practitioner or worker interested in deepening your anti-Black racism action? We’re excited to host an in-person train-the-trainer workshop on how to use the Call-In-Cards for Anti-Black Racism Action to facilitate dialogues that connect understandings of anti-Black racism to anti-Black racism practice!

The workshop will include a session with Dr. Carol Wade on how critical self-reflexivity about the 16 scenarios can lead to the identification of gaps and opportunities to support the ongoing work of combatting anti-Black racism.

⏰ Tuesday, October 14 9:30AM - 3:30 PM (ET)
📍 In-person at York University Keel Campus
🔗 Apply: https://t.co/0fpiSBYfYA

Apply by September 30th to join us! All costs for refreshments, lunch, and a physical Call-In-Cards pouch are covered. Participants must currently be working in a program that serves youth and have received approval from your organization that you are able to attend in-person on Tuesday, October 14th (9:30AM to 3:30PM ET).

[YouthREX @REXforYouth]

🍁 Fall is here! It’s a new season with new opportunities to learn with YouthREX virtually and in-person!

• RSVP for Sep 25: https://t.co/TsTXYhNoEC
• RSVP for October 14: https://t.co/yJAy6UuXUD