Canada’s Cannabis Act and Youth: 5 Years Later and 5 Years Forward

YouthREX and partners – the Ontario Native Education Counselling Association (ONECA), Provincial Youth Outreach Worker Program at Strides Toronto, and YMCA Youth Cannabis Awareness Program – invite you to a two-part community dialogue on cannabis and youth.

Join us on 4/20 to reflect on the lessons, emergent questions, concerns, and needs of young people five years after the legalization of cannabis in 2018, and to chart a path forward for the next five years.

What are the lessons from cannabis and youth initiatives focused on public education, advocacy, capacity building, and youth-led engagement launched following the legalization of cannabis? How can we sustain such work to continue supporting young people?

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Part One will feature presentations from youth sector initiatives funded in response to the Cannabis Act. They will share lessons from their work as well as critical and actionable considerations for charting a path forward in continuing to support youth.

Part Two will include facilitated Breakout Discussion Groups to create space for participants to discuss the opportunities and challenges in supporting youth wellbeing, connections between cannabis use and youth mental health, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic and policy impacts of legalization, and how to sustain our work going forward.

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Our presenters and special guests will include:

• Roxane Manitowabi, Executive Director, Ontario Native Education Counselling Association
• Antonette Phiri, Manager, Provincial Youth Outreach Worker Program
• Mina Hazar, Yvette Clark, Lucia Scalco & Toby Ma, YMCA Youth Cannabis Awareness Program
• Destin Bujang, Executive Director, Black Creek Youth Initiative
• Chuka Ejeckam, Political Researcher & Writer
• Kiah Ellis-Durity, Project Facilitator, Cannabis & Mental Health
• Dr. Daniel Bear, Professor, Humber College
• Garth Edwards, Policy Analyst, Ontario Public Service (OPS)
• Charles-Antoine Rouyer, Course Director, Multidisciplinary Studies, York University – Glendon Campus
• Kathe Rogers, Knowledge Exchange Director, YouthREX
• Dr. Uzo Anucha, York Research Chair in Youth and Contexts of Inequity / Academic Director, YouthREX

Click on the Learn More link for additional details and to reserve your free spot!

★ P.S. There will be live giveaways! ★