Far from apathetic: Canadian youth identify the supports they need to speak about and act on issues

According to the government agency responsible for tabulating trends in voting patterns, electoral participation in Canada plunged steadily from the 1990s to early twenty-first century; most of the decline is attributed to a dwindling of interest among youth voters, specifically those between 18 and 24 years of age. Recent national and international research links experiential learning with increased civic engagement. By framing our community student-learning project around student engagement and issues that the students raised, our study evolved as a joint collaboration among a government agency (Elections Canada), a national youth leadership programme (Encounters With Canada) and a Canadian university’s Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa. This study gives particular voice to students to help educators better understand how teenagers see themselves as citizens, what issues they identify as significant, and what resources and materials they claim they need to engage with in the democratic process.