Falcons hope to roost in City Hall

Nearly one-fifth of London's population is between the ages of 15 and 25. The London Youth Advisory Council (LYAC) is seeking to harness these young people's energy and ideas to influence the leaders of today and build the leaders of tomorrow.

Six Falcons are “being the change” they wish to see in London and running for the LYAC.

London is split into 14 sections, called Wards, which each have a city councillor as the area's representative. The LYAC uses these same divisionary lines, with young people running to represent each ward in the city.

“It's a council that helps the youth voice in London get recognized by not just people in the city, but by the [municipal] government,” said Law Clerk student Cedric Richards, who is running for Ward 1.

“It's important to me because for a long time, I've wanted to get my voice out there, and this is an easier way to do it than just shooting off an email to a councillor,” he said. “This is organized.”

Richards, who grew up in the city, said that his experience of being a Londoner brings a unique perspective to his platform. “I feel that there are a lot of students at Fanshawe who are from London who live all over the city as opposed to living around here. They would probably appreciate it if a local was a voice for them.”

Ward 3 candidate Meaghan Bennett, a Dental Hygiene student in her final year, described the LYAC as “an organization to amplify youth voices…I think it's really important for the rest of London to see that there are youth who are passionate about positive changes and are interested in politics.”

She said the issues students are facing include transportation, health care (especially dental care), community collaboration and involvement.

“I think that a lot of students don't understand how it affects them directly, that all of the political and social influences as a city impact what's happening in the school,” she said. “LYAC is the perfect outlet for that. It's a youth organization that allows students to be involved in the process of decision- making for those political issues that are happening in London.”

Anuj Sharma, an international post-graduate Project Management student who is also running for Ward 3, dove headfirst into community issues since his very first day in London. “I've been here since September, and from day one I regularly work for Food Bank, London Ontario Women's Cancer Society, and London Central Library.” He also volunteers his time for the Sharing Shop and the International Office here on campus.

He said he hopes to lead by example, showing London's youth the importance of being involved. “I'm trying to be a good person for the community. I want to change the community, and I'm starting [with] myself — I'll change myself, and then I'll change the community.”

Harnessing the energy of Fanshawe's 15,000 full-time students is of the utmost importance, he said. “It's a huge amount of students. It's a big number … We have a lot of students in the community, so we have to take care of them. We need to focus on the economy and other factors so we can keep on developing.”

Second-year Business Finance student Grant Atwood is running for Ward 10. With a family background in politics, the LYAC seemed like a perfect fit.

“The London Youth Advisory Council is a way for youth to [work on] issues in their community that they think are outstanding,” he said. He'd like to see an increased effort to clean up London's roads and to crack down on youth smoking areas. “There's lots of stuff that we're going to have to talk about,” and he's interested to see what people bring forward as youth issues.

“Youth do not have very much of a voice these days, and it's important. You have kids who are talking on behalf of a whole bunch of people,” he said. He's open to hearing ideas from Fanshawe students. “They should care [about the LYAC] because a lot of the people who go to this school are between the ages of 15 and 25. There's a voice to be had there.”

Once elected, youth councillors' terms will run from September 2014 to June 2015.

Vote for your youth voice on council until March 29. Voting is open to anyone over the age of 13 — even non-students. For more information on the candidates and to vote, go to lyac.ca.

Fanshawe students and grads who are running for the LYAC:

Ward 1
Cedric Richards

Ward 3
Anuj Sharma
Meaghan Bennett

Ward 5
Jonathan Urbanowich

Ward 10
Grant Atwood

Ward 13
Angad Rastogi