In this year's provincial and federal elections, low youth voter turnout proved to be a continuing problem in Canada, showing that many Canadian youth remain disengaged from the political process. Global Vision is a national organization that is working to change this.

Founded in 1991 by Terry Clifford, Global Vision is a notfor- profit organization that engages enterprising young Canadians through education and hands-on experience. To date, over 25,000 Canadian youth have been trained through their various programs, including trade, investment and development missions to over 30 countries.

As a part of Global Vision's Riding Ambassador program, they are holding an information session on November 15 from 6 to 9 p.m. in King's University College's Wemple Student Lounge. At the event, Program Coordinator Samantha Fox will be providing an overview of the program and a couple of graduates of the program will discuss their August trip to Indonesia and Malaysia. Members of Global Vision also attended the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders' Meeting on November 6, including a University of Western Ontario student who will share stories from the meeting.

Fox said the event will also feature a speech by Clifford, and will help inform youth who are considering joining. "(The event) will be an open forum to see if they want to be involved, what questions they have for us, what we can do for them, that kind of thing."

The program's overarching goal is to increase youth political activism and youth engagement within communities. According to Fox, what makes this program so exciting is that youth in each riding can pick and choose what initiatives they want to do.

For example, Fox said that in London they're looking at having a women's leadership afternoon, which has been endorsed by London North Centre MP Susan Truppe, and will likely be attended by London North Centre MPP Deb Matthews.

Currently, there are already established Riding Ambassadors in London, but they are in need of volunteers to assist them. These volunteers will then have the potential to be a Riding Ambassador the following year, join other Global Vision programs and will be invited to both the regional and national conferences in Toronto and Ottawa, respectively.

"We're all volunteers and we're all youth, so it's not the government saying, 'Go out and get involved in your community.' It's youth working together and doing whatever they want to do ... Whatever your interests are, we can do something that fits that, so that's really exciting," said Fox.

Youth who want to join must be between the ages of 15 and 25, and don't need to be students. For more information about Global Vision, visit globalvision.ca, and check their Facebook event page at tinyurl.com/globalvision. Samantha Fox can be contacted at sfox.jtc@gmail.com for more information or to answer any questions.