Bangladeshi Canadian Community Services

http://www.bangladeshi.ca/

This initiative engaged Bangladeshi and South Asian youth in Crescent Town in productive activities to address challenges and help youth build leadership skills and self-confidence.

Young people formed a 49-member Youth Peer Cabinet with four sub-committees focused on the following activities: young women's program, mentorship program, creating the "Life in Bangla Town" documentary, and organizing the Multicultural Summer Fest event.

Youth have increased their awareness of the immigration and legal systems by participating in the campaign to stop deportation of a Bangladeshi-Canadian student at the University of Toronto. This experience inspired them to be more civically engaged, resulting in several youth voting in the federal election for the first time.

The Youth Peer Cabinet is the only program in Crescent Town that focuses on engaging Bangladeshi youth. As such, they have learned a lot about the needs of these youth and the community as a whole. The initiative is currently looking into becoming a member of YCF Legacy initiative Power in Numbers (PIN) in order to build the capacity of their organization to become a youth arm of Bangladeshi Canadian Community Services.