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Batten House Podcast
Batten House Podcast
Batten House Podcast
Ep 7 How Youth Ottawa is Shaping Tomorrow's Leaders
Join us in this enlightening episode where Jesse Card, Executive Director of Youth Ottawa, shares incredible insights into empowering today’s youth. Discover how Youth Ottawa has been a pillar in the community for over 28 years, actively working to shape young leaders and instill a sense of agency. Jesse reflects on his own challenges as a student, illustrating how personal experiences can fuel a passion for advocacy.
As we delve into the mission of Youth Ottawa, Jesse explains their unique approach, focusing on prevention and empowerment rather than crisis management. You’ll learn about the organization’s collaborations with the city through initiatives like the Ottawa Youth Council, fostering civic engagement among youth. Tune in to understand how they’re paving the way for young people to become architects of change, giving rise to innovative solutions that impact their communities now and in the future.
This episode will inspire you to look at youth through a different lens—one that celebrates their strengths and potential. You’ll walk away with a deeper understanding of how you can contribute to this vital movement. Ready to get involved? Don’t miss out on how you can support Youth Ottawa's mission to uplift the next generation.
This is the Batten House podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Sean Batten.
Speaker 2:So local businesses and local community organizations that are doing awesome things. Today we are with Jesse Card, who is the executive director of an awesome organization here in Ottawa called Youth Ottawa. Jesse, how?
Speaker 3:you doing, man. I'm good, Sean. Thanks for having me on the podcast, hey man.
Speaker 2:I love what you're doing and I'm really excited for our listeners to learn more about what you're doing. So let's get right into it. What do you guys do in Ottawa here?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so Youth Ottawa is a not-for-profit registered charity. It's been around. This is the 28th year of operation. I didn't found the organization. It was actually created by the late Max Keeping, which many journalists and media folks would know. I actually, like anyone in Ottawa, would know Absolutely, absolutely. And then also Jean Piggott, who was a prominent businesswoman and MP. In fact, if you go downtown to City Hall, the main foyer is named after her.
Speaker 3:So there's a great legacy behind Youth Ottawa and really since day one, the idea was that we should be recognizing and celebrating young people more in the community and and recognizing them as as leaders and and change makers right now, here, in the present, not always in the future, thinking about when they become adults, but rather young people who make can make great contributions right here and right now, and that's what we've been working on.
Speaker 2:That's, that's just awesome. I it's. That's very close to my heart, and my wife's as well, so that's really cool. Um, so, tell our listeners about your journey. How, why did you get into this organization?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's um, that's a great question and you know I I've I've answered this um a few times over the course of my career, but um, it's always, you know, every time I answer it it's another time to calibrate if that's really what it was or why I got into it. And you know my origin story of kind of supporting young people I think comes from my experience as a young person and you know it's funny as I've been working in this space, in the nonprofit sector, supporting young people. Whenever you run into somebody new, you often, you know, hear them reflect to their childhood and and you know their, their experience growing up. So you know, even if, even if it's somebody like a, you know a CEO talking on a on a stage about their business, they often talk about them creating this company because of some previous experience. So you know, supporting young people I think is is it's very natural for people to think about and and to want to contribute to.
Speaker 3:But for me in grade three I was really struggling, struggling in school, and I remember being kind of had I had to go through some assessments for learning disability and I remember the feeling of kind of being ostracized in grade three and how that made me feel and I think that stuck with me.
Speaker 3:I had to work hard throughout school to kind of to keep up with my classmates and I had a different learning style, which nowadays this was back in, you know, the late 80s or early 90s, but nowadays we know a lot more about neuro neurodiversity late 80s or early 90s, but nowadays we know a lot more about neuro neurodiversity and there's individual learning plans now, but back then it was a little rough. So I always wanted to be in a position to give back to young people, whether it be, you know, kids struggling in school or maybe at home. That stuck with me and I think that led to me pursuing an academic background in criminology and crime prevention and eventually led me to working for the Youth Services Bureau in Ottawa in the criminal justice side of what they do at the secure custody facility, secure custody facility and and then eventually you know just you know full circle Youth Ottawa came into my life. I met the folks running that organization and what they were doing and it was just a natural fit and that's what brought me to the organization originally.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. What a what a journey that is. There's something so powerful about your personal experience being a certain way that really motivates and drives, inspires you to make a difference in the, in the, in this case, in the in our community, right. So that's, that's really cool. Thanks for sharing that. That's that's awesome. Tell us about any myths or misconceptions you hear about your service.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's funny. You know, over the years I've heard you thought it would be described as kind of a small but mighty team that punches above its weight. You know, we've always had a small team. We transitioned in the early days from kind of a volunteer organization into actually hiring staff eventually as revenues grew. And I think that a lot of people see Youth Ottawa. They often think that we are the city of Ottawa, which we're not. Some people also mistake us from other youth serving organizations like the BGCO Boys and Girls formerly Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa or the Youth Services Bureau, where I used to work, and actually we're quite different.
Speaker 3:A lot of those organizations do great work in the city.
Speaker 3:They focus on crises that are happening mental health, housing, criminal justice but Youth Ottawa really tries to differentiate in that we see youth as not just the recipients of support but rather our architects have changed themselves and we try to focus on empowering young people to find that spark of change in their lives and then also be able to lift their communities up and spark change in their communities as well.
Speaker 3:So that's what we're focused on. It's much more preventative and empowerment also be able to lift their communities up and spark change in their communities as well. So that's what we're focused on. It's much more preventative and empowerment and, yeah, we love going on this journey and helping young people, whether it's them starting a business needing some early investment or some mentorship or some program and skills development, or whether it's a young person wanting to give back to their community, create some sort of initiative that can support, you know, a challenge in their local community that they see, or you know somebody learning how to share their story and learn about storytelling, digital literacy, podcasting, for instance. We really work with young people in that space. So that's maybe a misconception that people have about us, but also it's great to be able to kind of set the record straight and tell how we're a little different Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And I mean one thing that in our conversations I have found out that you guys do have a really unique relationship with the city of Ottawa actually, which is very powerful. And just explain a little bit for our listeners what that relationship is, because it's very unique and it's a big deal. I think it's just awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So you know, yeah, from the very, you know, early days of the organization, um, youth ottawa tried to make a space where we could help young people understand kind of the civics and and active citizenship within their communities. So how does the city work? What does it actually do? Is it something that's just there that we have to kind of operate in, or can we shape the city as citizens? And even if you're not a voting age, what are those ways that you can communicate and shape the city as a young person? And I think that's pretty important seeing as how, um, you know, this day and age, we want to retain talent, we want to retain residents and, uh, we don't want everyone, you know, uh, going to university and then skipping out to toronto, you know so. So what we've been able to do from early on is kind of build a relationship with the city, and that's evolved into some summits where the city has hosted young people, gotten their opinions, and actually in 2012, it was Mayor Jim Watson that hosted a youth summit and what came out of that was a lot of concrete recommendations that we need to find ways to make the city more accessible to young people. So that means city councillor relationships and young people's understanding of what a city councillor does, what the mayor does.
Speaker 3:We wanted to strengthen those communication channels, so we started a group, the Ottawa Youth Engagement Committee, back in 2013 and 14, in partnership with the city, and that's exactly what we tried to do.
Speaker 3:We tried to, you know, expose young people to what city councillors do, what are the roles and departments of the city. And then we created the Mayor for the Day contest, so high school students every year can apply to be the mayor for the day and they job shadow the mayor, and we've been doing that for over a decade now. So that group, the Ottawa Youth Engagement Committee, has evolved. Last year we actually rebranded that as the ottawa youth council and it really is a mini uh city council for young people, uh, 15 to 25 years old and um, and we're growing that. Right now we're meeting monthly downtown thanks to uh, some great support from a local uh company, software company, full script canada, which is doing really well and they recognize this is an important thing, and they will open up their offices for us on Saturdays to welcome 60 to 100 kids to come in and learn about how they can be leaders in their communities. That's fantastic.
Speaker 2:I love that. Thanks for that little tangent. I think it's very important information that I really wanted to get out there. Very important information that I really wanted to get out there.
Speaker 3:So, when you're not, doing all this awesome work, because it's no small feat to be running or be in, never mind running a charity. What does Jesse Carr do for fun? No-transcript. And uh, the pandemic was was interesting the first two years of of river's life, but things are a little bit more normal now. Um, but I used to snowboard and ski and um having in in a few years. But maybe as the kids get older we'll get back into that and being outdoors. And you know I've coached football, I love sports, so we keep ourselves pretty busy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, I absolutely do. So, you know, thinking about your journey and your life, can you describe a hardship or a challenge that you rose above and that's that's shaped, shaped who you are now and kind of how you're approaching your, your role?
Speaker 3:Hmm, it's a great question. Well, you know, I did mention the struggles at school that I had early on and I think I'll mention that because often working with young people that are going through those same challenges you know high school is a are struggling seeing, like the value why they're there struggling with, with those academics. So for me, you know, a light bulb kind of went off in high school, maybe around grade 10 and and things started to click for me. So I try to tell young people to hang in there and that you know certain things come to you at certain times. Some are, some are later developing than other other kids, but that you know really nothing can shape where you're going.
Speaker 3:You know as much as just sticking with things, being patient with yourself and I think that's one thing that I overcame as a young person is I had to spend a lot of time on homework and things didn't come to me as easy as some of my friends. So I think I learned how to persevere and stick with things and I mean that serves me and anyone that's working these days understands it takes time, things don't happen overnight. So to be patient with yourself and work really hard, and that's what I try to tell young people is a little bit of my experience of how you know you don't always see, you know your work pay off right away. But if your, if your intentions are good and you're, and you work really hard, eventually things will all come together.
Speaker 2:And investing in yourself, learning the perseverance, learning to push yourself is is such a life skill that we all are, at some level, continually developing.
Speaker 3:Well, and I mean, you're an entrepreneur like you know, that's, that's something that that is critical for you in some position right Absolutely and persevere so Absolutely To keep going and persevere Absolutely.
Speaker 2:That's great that you're doing that for all these young people. So, as we wrap up, what's the one thing you wish our listeners knew about Youth Ottawa?
Speaker 3:Well, I think it's an interesting time.
Speaker 3:You know we're all aware of the challenges and many that are unfolding right now, but I really think that what I'd like to share with people is that Youth Ottawa really is a leader in, you know, youth empowerment and prevention.
Speaker 3:That's great. Prevention that's great and, you know, sometimes we can get a little uh, myopic or narrow-minded on just dealing with the things that are, you know, right in our existence right now, dealing with crises that are happening the record food banks issues, absolutely and we don't actually think beyond that, the problem itself, into how we're going to solve these things. How are the next generation going to be leaders in reforming policy? And really, I think you know people that want to support young people but want to work at it in terms of like a solution based preventative method you know would be. I would welcome them to check out Youth Ottawa. Maybe come on that journey with us, because I really do think we're leading the way to being able to find young people and empower them to be the leaders that are going to fix these problems once and for all.
Speaker 2:It's such a you're spot on. You know it's easy to react and all of those things that you mentioned are important, but there needs to be an organization like Youth Ottawa who is looking at the. Let's prevent. We can prevent things. We can empower our young people, and it's not easy work so good on you. And so for those listening, how can they reach out to you? How do they connect?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so our website's a great resource to learn more about the organization. We're at youthottawaca. We actually have gratitude reports that kind of do a good job summarizing what we did the year before. And you know, what we're looking for is obviously people to help support through donations, attending some events, maybe some sponsorships. We have some great opportunities for local businesses to sponsor some of the things that we're doing, and we're also looking for volunteers, business mentors, just good people to be able to visit classes here and there and talk to young people and share some of their experiences as adults and how they got to where they are. So, yeah, I would recommend everyone following us on social media. We're on Instagram and Facebook, linkedin, twitter, perfect, and the website's a great resource.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's great. Well, listen, I know you are busy leading this awesome organization, so I thank you for your time and answering all our questions. And reach out youthodowaca and talk to Jesse and the team and get involved.
Speaker 1:Thanks again, jesse, thank you sean, thank you for having me thanks for listening to the batten house podcast to nominate a favorite local.
