Port Alberni
This community piloted an early version of the Child and Youth Friendly Communities materials and has continued to pursue the concept as central to the community vision. Recreation has always been strongly supported by Port Alberni residents, and the initial focus of the process was on building stronger youth engagement in the recreation process.

However, the materials have been used in other planning activities: for instance, they were used by the RCMP to initiate discussions with youth about how relations between the police and youth could be improved. Once again, they were questions that started a positive dialogue.

Roberts Creek
This was another pilot site for Child and Youth Friendly Communities materials. A community conference was organized through the local elementary school. The outcome has been a series of initiatives to improve relations between youth and adults in the community, as well as a drive to create a multi-purpose community centre in the community.

Renfrew-Collingwood, Vancouver
Collingwood is a new urban community in Vancouver city that has grown up around the ALRT station. The staff of its Neighbourhood House are most interested in ensuring that the community is child and youth friendly. The Society for Children and Youth of BC held an orientation workshop in the community in January 2002, which started the community planning process.

In subsequent meetings, the SCY materials helped the community focus on the domain of Parks and Open Space. A grant request from the United Way's Community Innovations Fund was approved. High school students conducted a community mapping project, identifying all the places and issues related to parks and open space. They received an honorarium of $50 for this work. They presented their findings to the Windermere HS administration and staff, to the City of Vancouver Neighbourhood Planners, and the Collingwood Neighbourhood House Board of Directors.

The next stage of this process is advocating for the changes that were identified through the mapping project. The students have also been asked to become involved in mapping the child and youth friendliness of the Renfrew Community Centre. The Neighbourhood House has also identified the domain of Health Services as the next one to work on.

The Child and Youth Friendly Communities materials were catalysts to the process. They assisted by:

* helping everyone to understand what they were talking about - the issue of 'what is child and youth friendly?' was essential groundwork for agreeing on what to do.
* helping to choose one domain to focus on, and to put limits around that domain.
* helping to keep everyone focused and on track, as well as making it easier to know when the task had been completed.

West Kootenays
The people of the WK had started the process of community revitalization in 2000. Early on, they had identified making the communities in the region attractive to families with children as a key economic development strategy. The Society for Children and Youth of BC held an orientation workshop in Greenwood in February 2002, with about 120 people, half youth, half adults, attending. The workshop was 'inspirational' (to quote the Executive Director of the Boundary Family and Individual Services Society), and reinforced the linkage of child and youth friendliness to community economic development.

Since the workshop, many of the West Kootenays communities have started to work on child and youth friendliness, many with funding from the National Crime Prevention Council.

* Greenwood has formed G-CAT (Greenwood Community Action Team), has hired a part-time Youth Coordinator, with support from City Council, and has started to engage the community's youth.
* Beaverdel also has a part-time Youth Coordinator and is working on identifying places for youth.
* Christina Lake's Child and Youth Committee is working with youth to get the Community Hall opened for youth activities.

The Child and Youth Friendly Communities materials were again catalysts to the overall process:

* They provide information for the professional staff
* They are always there when someone asks about child and youth friendliness.

Another great Community Action Example comes out of the community of Montrose (tucked in among the communities of Trail and Rossland), where the Montrose Youth Action Team Society (MYATS) were proud to receive a CYFC Award from SCY in 2004. Their story begins with the efforts of one young man who went to Village Council asking for help to get a skateboard park. Council told him to get organized and then come back. And that he did. After raising more than $25,000 and with support of a number of organizations and individuals, the Montrose Skateboard Park has become a reality. The park has been used by people of all ages, many spectators have admired the skills of local enthusiasts, and the process helped bridge the gap between youth and adults, including seniors. The MYATS has received applause from the local RCMP for having a positive reduction in youth crime.

Campbell River
The John Howard Society of North Island (JHSNI) is a non-profit society that provides programs of rehabilitation, education, prevention and healing for children and youth - opening opportunities for them to achieve, maintain or regain balance within their communities and is a recipient of an SCY CYFC Award. This past year JHSNI youth and staff developed and implemented various ambitious projects including:

* tailor-made, youth-driven service plans to focus on each youth's strengths and needs;
* a youth community kitchen available to youths who live alone;
* a youth craft group organized and run by teens for children aged 10-14;
* a community bike project providing youth with work experience and bikes to needy families;
* a youth project educating about the causes and prevention of Type 2 diabetes;
* a school-based alcohol and drug prevention program survey to determine where prevention and intervention is most needed; and
* helped to support local youth-organized workshops held by the Campbell River Alcohol and Drug Action Committee.

Child and youth-centered programs have given children and youth a clear voice in determining how they will be provided with treatment or service. JHSNI is very proactive in involving youth in all their initiatives.

Abbotsford
Apart from their regularly scheduled activities, the Abbotsford Youth Commission offered an extensive series of free recreation programs for youth in the community during the spring of 2004. Both youth and adults were involved in the development of activities surrounding Youth Week including Random Acts of Kindness, All-Star Basketball Tourneys, a Carnival and an Art Gallery Exhibit. Through these well-received activities, youth were able to reach out to their community and show that teens care. Through efforts over the past 14 years, ACY strives to improve conditions for less advantaged, non-mainstream youth in the Abbotsford community. For all that they have achieved, the AYC were awarded a CYFC Award from SCY in November, 2004.

New Westminster
A CYFC Award from SCY was given to the New Westminster Youth Advisory Committee in 2004 when, with help from the local radio industry and Parks and Recreation, some youth members developed an anti drinking and driving PSA. This was broadcast for a week on a popular radio station during graduation week. The youth were instrumental in the entire campaign from the idea phase to the completion stages. The PSA was well received in their community by adults and peers. The New Westminster Youth Advisory Committee is closely linked with City Council. Over seven years the committee's mandate has been to provide advice and information to Council on issues relative to youth throughout the city.

Sunshine Coast
Parent, coaches and kids from all walks of life actively participate and make decisions with the Sunshine Coast Strikers U16 Rep Soccer Team. The Strikers make every attempt to include new members and warmly welcome visiting teams. Several youth players journeyed to Vancouver with their coach to take part and speak at the International Congress on Child and Youth Health. Along with their coach, who spoke about the power of play in health development, the three boys spoke of their experiences playing youth soccer together.

Chetwynd
This past summer (2004) members of the Chetwynd Alcohol & Drug Misuse Prevention Committee arranged for a group of local children and youth to volunteer and/or otherwise support at least one community event (such as school meetings, family festivals, Canada Day and the Cancer Relay Walk) in exchange for attending five-day physical theatre workshops where they trained in clowning, juggling, acrobatics and stilt walking. Public performances of the skills learned were held at the end of each workshop and made the children and youth feel more connected to their community.

Mt. Pleasant, Vancouver
The Broadway Youth Resource Team (BYRT) is youth centre targeting at risk youth from aboriginal and other multi-ethnic backgrounds in the heart of Vancouver's Mount Pleasant neighborhood. The BYRT demonstrates outstanding leadership in providing much needed counseling, employment, and education programs in a 'one of its kind' integrated model supported by seven agencies. Key to their success is involving youth using their services in designing programs and setting priorities. The BYRT instills social responsibility among youth through access to volunteer and other training opportunities and for all of this was awarded a CYFC award from SCY in 2003.

Boston Bar
Boston Bar's Building Bridges/New Beginnings Program consists of a local 6 person committee that pairs young children with big buddies, supports interaction between children and seniors, as well as crafts and family recreation.

Richmond
The Richmond Auto Mall's KidSake Day involves 35 non profit groups in the Richmond area to deliver safety knowledge to over 900 parents each year during KidSake Day - BC's largest child safety day.

Riley Park, Vancouver
The Riley Park Youth Council makes a positive impact on youth issues and through its principles of preventative programming, collaborative networking, cultural sensitivity, resource development and networking opportunities for young people.