Diverse Youth Advisory Council: DEFY Challenge Yourself

Originally a partnership with the City's Parks Forestry and Recreation department, the DEFY Challenge Yourself initiative focused on engaging youth in non-traditional forms of recreation such as henna art, drumming and cricket. The initiative has developed into a completely youth-led and youth-driven initiative. The group met once a week to plan workshops and events throughout the year, culminating in a larger DEFY Challenge Yourself annual event. The initiative has embodied YCF's model of youth-led and youth-driven as the participants conceived of the idea, planned, promoted and coordinated events. As a result, they built numerous employable skills while engaging peers in their community.