Enhancing Political Representation by Extending the Voting Age
Foundry Abbotsford – 2023
In September 2024, the Agenda Gap team partnered with Foundry Abbotsford to pilot an on-site implementation of the program. The Agenda Gap team provided program materials, participant intake support, and facilitation training. Thirteen youth completed the program, attending weekly, in-person meetings after school at the Foundry centre from November 2024 to May 2025.
Agenda Gap youth identified a range of strengths and challenges in their community related to youth mental health. To address two of these priority challenges, the group applied to the Public Health Agency of Canada’s School Health Grants program. These micro-grants fund youth-driven projects that encourage healthy living in school settings. The group was successful in a grant to support their efforts related to affordable nutrition, and deliverables will be achieved with the support of the Agenda Gap and Foundry Abbotsford teams.
The group went on to develop a mission statement and refine their policy target, which focused on enhancing diversity in political representation, including by youth.
To inform their strategy, the group engaged with several allies, including Foundry staff and two young adults, one of whom is involved in provincial politics and the other who brings a long history of work to increase youth representation in political decision-making.
As a result, the youth focused their efforts on researching and drafting a call to action to the Premier of BC and the BC Special Committee on Democratic and Electoral Reform to advocate for extending the vote to those aged 16 and 17. Their allies reviewed the letter, after which it was posted as an online petition to collect signatures. The campaign was advertised through posters at the five schools the youth attended. Their allies also amplified their petition on Vote16.ca and hand-delivered a copy of the letter to the Premier. The Wellstream team later met with Premier Eby to discuss the work Foundry Agenda Gap youth had accomplished and ask for his support.
