Youth to join Surrey advisory councils

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SURREY (NEWS1130) – Politics and young people don’t often mix but that’s something Surrey is hoping to change by adding youth advisors to their committees.

One-third of Surrey is under the age of 19, making it Canada’s youngest city.

Surrey City Councillor Barinder Rasode says the goal is to prepare youth to take charge of their city.

“We think, as we say often, the future lives here and we also recognize that our future is here now. We need to be including them in the engagement process.”

She says youth advisors will sit on all committees but won’t have voting power on some like public safety which deals with policing.

Barinder explains council was approached with the idea at a community outreach session.

“Our committees play a vital role in assessing and discussing issues and then bringing them forward.  We had our community summit in April and the Flick Committee, a youth advocacy group, made an appeal to council to have youth representatives [in advisory councils].”

Barinder hopes adding youth into the mix will help spur more political engagement by young adults, and diminish voter apathy.

Surrey will put the call out for volunteer youth advisors between the ages of 18 and 25 in the New Year.

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