The Compensated Opportunities for Youth Network (COYN) program builds mutually beneficial partnerships between stakeholders and young Canadians across the country.
Imagine being an organization that needs to design a program to support young people in Canada, but you don't know enough about young people in Canada to really optimize the program and its reach to its fullest potential.
Perhaps the new program needs to support young people with mental health resources or financial support, or perhaps your organization needs youth insight for their new marketing or recruitment strategy.
We've heard a lot over the past few years about authentic storytelling and giving marginalized voices a seat at the table. We've read and watched the stories of brands and organizations that left out these critical components and, though well-intentioned, missed the mark with outdated programs, systems, policies and marketing campaigns.
Leading them to waste a lot of money, face public backlash and even get cancelled by the very demographic who they were trying to serve.
Metrics and KPIs Can Only Tell Half the Story
We know organizations want to be purpose-driven and gain better insight into the population they're looking to support with their products or services. But metrics and KPIs can only tell half the story. It's important for organizations to have these voices directly at the decision-making table providing key insights and lived experiences.
Canadian Council for Youth Prosperity (CCYP)'s Compensated Opportunities for Youth Network (COYN) program was formed in 2021 to build mutually beneficial partnerships between stakeholders and young people in order to fill this gap.
RELATED: COYN - Theory and Background
What's in it for Stakeholders?
The goal of the COYN program is to build and support a network of youth and stakeholders to assist in finding equitable and reasonable ways for youth to inform programming, policies and structures at various organizations. Here's how a youth and stakeholder partnership can be beneficial to an organization:
Develop youth-informed policies, practices and programming
Gain insights on current trends
Welcome the future labour force into your organization
Work towards a more inclusive and equitable workplace
Adopt more innovative and collaborative strategies
One of the significant accomplishments that the COYN program achieved this year was in partnership with a major organization in the mining industry. The team conducted 15 focus groups for youth across the country to share and learn about the mining industry.
The goal was to initiate youth engagement and help identify where the organization can better engage with young people to help fuel their labour force pipeline with new recruits.
This is just one example of how the COYN program can be beneficial to an organization.
Creating these spaces of interaction fosters sustainable and innovative change, ultimately transforming the future of Canada’s workforce ecosystem.
Learn more about COYN or email us at coyn@ccyp-ccpj.org.