Background

In 2000, the Québec Youth Summit helped reach a consensus about the importance of giving Québec a youth policy. The Québec Youth Policy was therefore released in 2001, followed by the 2002-2005 Youth Action Plan. The plan proposed a set of measures to engage Québec society in a culture of generational renewal, to ensure the development of young people’s full potential and to facilitate their access to the job market, to improve the quality of working life, to develop a sense of belonging to Québec society and, lastly, to foster exchanges with, and openness to, youth. Over the past years, efforts and resources have therefore been invested in fostering young people’s engagement in Québec society.

Since the 2002-2005 Youth Action Plan will soon come to an end, the Québec Government has begun to develop a Youth Action Strategy for the 2005-2008 period. To date, five orientations have been retained, around which the government intends to structure its actions on behalf of young people aged 35 and under for the next three years.

• Improve the support offered to young people
• Improve the health and well-being of young people
• Foster young people’s educational success
• Foster young people’s entry into the workforce
• Increase young people’s presence in society

The goal is to ensure young people’s full participation: at school, in a training project; at work, by holding down a job or completing a training program; or in the community, by making an active contribution to their community’s well-being.

Moreover, a few factors will be considered in developing the Youth Action Strategy that will, in a way, serve as the backdrop for achieving it. The government will take into consideration the coming demographic changes which will put heavier responsibilities on the shoulders of Québec’s youth, and it will work in concert with the actors present in young people’s various living environments (the school, municipality, community, leisure, etc.). It will also focus on increasing the coherence and complementarity of the services offered to young people and their families so as to intensify interventions with them. Also, since the contexts of some young people’s life courses are more complex than, or culturally different from, that of the majority, the government will, through its strategic choices, strive to meet the socioeconomic and educational needs of aboriginal youth, and young people from Québec’s cultural communities. Lastly, it will be sensitive to the specific needs of the regions, primarily in terms of the exodus of youth.

Given this backdrop, strategic choices have been made with respect to each of the orientations selected; these choices will help determine the actions the government will focus on for the next few years. For now, 12 strategic choices are being tabled for consultation. Means of action must be determined for each one. To this end, the government is submitting 17 questions for consideration by youths and actors who are involved with youth.

The government has two goals for this exercise. The first is to validate the orientations and strategic choices selected with young people and the various actors who work with them to ensure these orientations and choices are aligned with young people’s concerns. The second goal is to fuel current reflection on the means to be implemented over the next three years.

The persons and organizations that wish to table a document presenting their point of view can do so by e-mail at the following address:

Consultation Stratégie d’action jeunesse
Secrétariat à la jeunesse
875, Grande Allée Est, Suite RC.01
Québec, Québec G1R 4Y8

The documents must be sent to the Secrétariat à la jeunesse before 5:00 p.m. on June 30, 2005.

You can also respond on line to the questions submitted within the context of this consultation by completing the form.

If you answer on a personal basis, you must provide your age and the region you live in, as well as your email address, if relevant.

If you answer on behalf of an organisation, you must indicate your name, your title, the organisation’s contact information (including the email address, if relevant) as well as the fields of actions of the organisation.

The on-line consultation will continue throughout the consultation process. To find out more about the next stages in the public consultation, click here

For any questions related to the consultation, please call 1-800-463-5306, toll-free.