• Home
• Youth
• Youth Conference

Youth Conference

 

The 2022 NFF Youth Conference (virtual) creates an intentional and accessible space for youth, by youth to learn and engage in vital discussions around the development of healthy relationships- with one’s community, peer group, family, partner, and oneself.    

The Youth Conference is organized and moderated by our Youth Advisory Council. The goal is to have a dialogue and create awareness about the intersectionality of identities and how that has an impact on people's lives along with a call for youth action.      

Conference Recording:

Speakers: 

Elder Myrna Kicknosway is a Bodawatomi/Odawa Anishinaabe Kwe of the Loon Clan. She originates from the lands and waters that are part of Bkejiwanong Territories. Helping others is her life purpose, opening endless possibilities and opportunities for resiliency, compassion, joy, and forgiveness.

 

 

 

Keynote by Sandy Hudson, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, Canada. Sandy is an educator, activist, public intellectual with her talent to make people imagine the future with justice. When Sandy Hudson speaks, people listen. A dynamic and matter-of-fact communicator, Sandy has a unique ability to distill complex ideas into manageable concepts for large audiences. Tackling a range of social justice issues from racism to feminism, Sandy is a natural thought-leader and has a gift for finding the common ground we need to make a better society.

 

Olivia Ghosh-Swaby is a 2021 Vanier Canada Graduate Scholar and currently completing her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry (SSMD), Western University. Her research interests include the impact of diet and metabolism on memory in obesity and whether exercise and anti-diabetic drugs can boost neural stem cell growth. She is an advocate and public speaker for equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in STEM and university athletics, speaking on the topic in over 15 news articles and 6 major speaking events. She is a former executive member of the BrainsCAN and currently a Chair for various Schulich EDI Committees and initiatives. Outside of academia, she manages and operates the Ontario Women’s Intercollegiate Football Association and sits on Football Canada’s Diversity Task Force for women and BIPOC athletes. She has a unique student-athlete perspective that has allowed her to champion various initiatives on the student and athlete life for underrepresented groups.

Noor Fadel is an award-winning educator, spoken word poet, and public speaker. A believer in the enormous opportunities that education and social advocacy provides, Noor inspires students, educators, and communities with her conviction that everyone has the right to “live unapologetically” and achieve their dreams. Drawing on personal experiences, Noor examines the role of race, culture, trauma and mental health through student and racialized women experiences in Canada. An impassioned and dynamic speaker, she incorporates creative elements into her work such as spoken word poetry and audience collaboration.

 

 

El Jones is a spoken word poet, an educator, a journalist, and a community activist living in African Nova Scotia. She is a co-founder of the Black Power Hour, a live radio show with incarcerated people that creates space for people inside to share their creative work and discuss contemporary social and political issues. Along with this, she supports women in Nova Institution in writing and sharing their voices. 

 

 

 

 

Thank you to our sponsors: