Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board Student Senate Youth Forum Kick-starts a Year of Change

November 26, 2009

Belleville, ON, November 26, 2009 – Students in the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board (HPEDSB) were given the opportunity to discover how to make a difference – and changes – at the Youth Forum hosted by the Student Senate. The inspiration for this year's event comes from Gandhi's famous line, "Be the change you want to see in the world."

The Youth Forum event sets the tone for the year's student leadership activities at school, in the community, and in the global arena. Participants included eight students, two student senators, and up to two teachers and one administrator from each secondary school in the district. This year's event focused on showing student leaders how to create change in four areas: themselves, schools, communities, and at the global level. The forum encompassed the key areas of community involvement, accessibility, and environmental sustainability.

The Student Senate consists of 16 student representatives from each of the HPEDSB's eight secondary schools who are involved in the educational decision-making process. These individuals participate in leadership activities outside the classroom and offer their fellow students effective and appropriate representation at the Board level.

Eight student leaders from the district made presentations encompassing four areas. The speech on Personal Change, presented by Molly Short and Nikita Babailov, conveyed the school district's "Growing with Character" initiative. The "Growing with Character" theme was woven throughout the presentation, encompassing eight defined qualities: honesty, humour, trustworthiness, responsibility, respect, caring, cooperation, and integrity. Self-growth was also emphasized, with a focus on the relationship between personal ethics and success in life.

School Change, presented by Emily Tetzlaff and Adam Paul, covered the basic principles of implementing change within a school community using the Student Senate Theory of Uniform Relative Change. Resi Walt and Gabe Platt spoke about Community Change through student-led projects, emphasizing the importance of using readily available community resources to help students get involved with a local charity. The Global Change presentation by Madison Ford and Tess Reid addressed climate change and how small actions can have an impact on global warming. A special activity on consumer packaging demonstrates excessive use of resources and the need to make a political choice through our purchases.

Motivational speaker, human rights activist, and journalist John Draper was the first guest speaker. A well-known advocate for accessibility and inclusion, he has received a number of awards for his work, including the Glen Crombie Memorial Award from the Ontario College Committee on Disability Issues. In his Together We Rock presentation, he spoke about the importance of promoting greater accessibility in schools, businesses and the community at large. Draper believes that citizens can be inspired to effect change to create communities that are accessible for and inclusive of people with disabilities.

Keynote speaker and environmental educator, Lisa Glithero, has educated people across the globe about the need for environmental action and sustainability. In 2006 she was one of 24 inter- national recipients of the Women of the Earth Award for her dedication to environmental education. In 2008 she was named one of Chatelaine's "Amazing Canadian Women to Watch." Her speech, "Inspiring a New Generation," was inspired by Gandhi's "Be the change you want to see in the world." Her multimedia presentation included personal stories, photographs and perspectives of transformative learning experiences designed to show students how their choices, actions, and vision can lead to positive school, community and global change.

One of the goals of the Youth Forum is to enhance the district's AiM System Plan and Healthy Active Schools objectives. Both are an integral part of both the curriculum and mission statement of the HPEDSB. In addition, student achievement also includes a strong environmental and conservation component through EarthCARE™, An Environmental Education Partnership (EC).

EarthCARE is the opt-in, occupant-behaviour, activity-based component of the Board's school-renewal and energy-conservation program with Ameresco Canada's Better Schools® program, a program that has helped the HPEDSB upgrade school infrastructure, saving the district money on utility costs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The 2009 spring audit indicated an improvement in occupant behaviour in three areas: energy, water, and waste, as compared to baseline data from the fall of 2005. The program's flagship LOCO (Lights Off, Computers Off) endeavour has achieved a 19% drop in electricity use since 2005, representing an estimated $208,200 savings for the 2008-2009 school year.

Students at all academic levels participate in EC, working on such school-based efforts such as recycling and composting. EarthCARE also promotes student-led endeavours in the community, such as campaigning to encourage students to walk to school to save fossil emissions at Park Dale School; creating a Stream of Dreams at Queen Victoria School to enhance community awareness of cleaner rivers, streams and creeks; and adding 3,252 One Million Acts of Green by Quinte Secondary School students to the growing international list of accomplishments.

Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board serves approximately 16,300 students each day at http://hpedsb.on.ca/ec/aboutus/indexofSchools.html, 46 elementary and eight secondary schools. Supporting student achievement is the goal of approximately 1,800 teaching and support staff who, in addition to the contributions of caring volunteers and community partners, share their passion for teaching and learning. The district covers a wide geographical area of 7,221 square kilometers bordered by Maynooth to the north, Deseronto to the east, Prince Edward County to the south and Quinte West to the west. The mission of EarthCARE is to develop environmental stewardship at school, at home, and in the community. Its goal is to turn energy waste into educational value and savings. Students, staff and parents work in tandem to make a difference now, and for the future.

Ameresco is the Canadian leader in school facility renewal, focusing on meeting the needs of Education leaders through the creation of quality teaching and learning environments. Guided by leading-edge research demonstrating the connection between facility conditions, school climate, and related educational outcomes, Ameresco generates healthy, safe, productive learning environments that optimize teaching and learning success. Ameresco has over 35 years of experience in the K-12 education market in Canada, and has completed more than 150 projects in over 2,000 schools, generating over $500 million in facility-related savings to date.