MARL’s Youth Leadership in Human Rights Project

The Youth Leadership in Human Rights Project is again underway for the 2010-2011 school year.  Having reached the mid-way point in this years’ program we are happy to report that it is continuing to grow and evolve.  In its first year the program saw three schools participating and last year we had eight schools who participated.  This year after much hype the MARL-Youth leadership is running at full capacity with twelve schools participating.  We are pleased to have attracted several new schools and to have a good overall representation of schools that reflect the various areas and communities in our city.

On December 7^th, 2010 the programs second session was held at Elmwood High School.  The morning began with a candle ceremony to commemorate the December 6 massacre at the École Polythechnique in  Montréal.  This was followed by our guest speaker, Darcy Ataman, who created the project Song for Africa.  His talk created a buzz with students and generated discussions and questions afterwards.  As well, each school gave a presentation a Canadian leader and began to engage in discussions about the various ways that the schools can involve themselves in community projects.  We are looking forward to the next step in this program and to see what projects and initiative these future leaders will create.