Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Pleased to meet you, allow us to introduce ourselves




The dilemma of every budding generation- such as mine- is feeling voiceless in comparison to the older and more established members of society. Fortunately, as technology has developed over the past few decades, it has become possible and increasingly efficient to communicate our thoughts and opinions online. For this, us millennials and Gen Z’ers are grateful. Let’s Get Together has always aimed to bring together families and communities while bridging a generational gap. One of the most effective manners in which to instigate change is to simply share and appreciate one another’s perspectives.

There is no shortage of impassioned youth who would appreciate a platform for content they’ve created surrounding issues and topics that interest them. This is precisely why Let’s Get Together has developed a youth-focused and youth-led initiative called Through Youth’s Eyes (TYE) in order to provide a stage to such youth. The mission of TYE is to encourage youth across Ontario to speak up and share their perspectives on issues that affect their education, family, well-being and community through an open, inclusive and respected platform that helps amplify their voice within the greater community. TYE will act as a means for young people to share their respectful criticisms, solutions, and ideas with those willing to listen.



As of now, the TYE team has determined that we will be electronically publishing submissions on a biweekly basis (a collection of multiple pieces issued once every two weeks). The content will be available right here on Let’s Get Together’s website. We accept various forms of content submissions from poetry to photography provided the submission can be displayed on our chosen platform and is meaningful in that it sends a message with regards to a clear topic.


How can I contribute?


We’ll be doing callouts on a regular basis through Let’s Get Together’s social media accounts in which we’ll ask for youth across Ontario to drum up their best work and submit it to tye@letsgettogether.ca for editions of TYE. Keep an eye out for new posts! We will also have a submission button at www.letsgettogether.ca/throughyouthseyes.


What is TYE looking for in terms of submissions?


We want you to express yourselves using TYE’s Guiding Principles of respect, empathy, collaboration, the spirit of life-long learning, fairness, inclusion and equity. As mentioned previously, we appreciate and encourage a wide variety of content in terms of form. We don’t want anyone to feel as though they’re in a creative box.


Your options include but are not limited to…
Articles
Photography
Poetry
Blogs
Quotes
Opinion Pieces
Interviews
Paragraphs


While polishing your pieces please also consider Let’s Get Together’s values as a “handbook” of sorts. These values are to put people first, that anything is possible, to be empowered, to foster collaboration and compassion, and to be innovative and revolutionary.


Our mission reiterated and broken down
  • To provide youth across Ontario a platform to share their thoughts on topics that affect their education, family, well-being and community.
  • To provide experiential learning opportunities for youth interested in journalism, photography, social media, communications.
  • To create mentorship opportunities for youth through our cross-student mentorship model (graduate, post-secondary, secondary and elementary).
  • To allow youth to engage in discussions to further explore and find possible solutions on issues that affect them.
  • To provide youth with the opportunity to invest in their community as they recognize the implications of current issues towards their future.
  • To encourage young writers, thinkers and creators to look at controversial topics from all angles and argue their opinion in a respectable manner.

It’s been lovely speaking with you and we can’t wait to get to know you better!
 The Through Youth’s Eyes team