Young Leaders Forum aims to help youth promote inclusion, embrace diversity

TORONTO Its daunting enough being the new kid in school, but for Saeid Chavoshi, adjusting to life in unfamiliar surroundings extended beyond the confines of the classroom.

At 11, he emigrated with his family from Iran to Canada, facing the added challenge of moving to a country where he didnt speak the language.

And if that wasnt tough enough, the comments directed his way from some fellow students didnt make things easier.

They used to just pick on me, recalled Chavoshi, who would later recount his experience as a newcomer in his high-school valedictory address.

And things (they said) that when I look back are not that hurtful. Its just that when youre young, they really hit you hard.

They would tell me things like, Go back where you came from, or The brown kid who doesnt speak English ... things like that that make you feel sort of isolated.

Now 19, Chavoshi is again speaking about the obstacles he has faced in hopes of empowering others encountering similar challenges and to help to illustrate the power words have to hurt as well as heal.

The University of Toronto student will be part of a panel of young people sharing their experiences Wednesday at a Young Leaders Forum organized by the Canadian Centre for Diversity.

The panel will be moderated by MuchMusic VJ Hannah Simone, as the fall forum explores the personal cost and impact of hate.

Centre president and CEO Amanda Sherrington first proposed the idea of a leadership program bringing together high-school students to look at themes around a world without stigma to Carla Wittes, vice-president of programs for the organization.

Following the inaugural forum in 2002, they heard overwhelmingly from participants who said they never have a chance to sit and talk so openly or to ask meaningful questions about life experience, Wittes said.

A notable moment involved one of the facilitators, who was aboriginal, discussing the emotional scar of residential schools and the impact left on his family.

I still remember this one student coming to me and saying, My jaw is on the floor. I mean, I live in Canada, I grew up in Canada and I had no idea that that sort of thing ever happened, Wittes recalled.

Part of a two-hour dialogue involves exploring case studies outlined in a workbook including true stories submitted by facilitators of a time when someone was discriminated against or made to feel less than valued.

One example centres around a high-school quarterback who decides to come out of the closet, only to have his buddies make him the target of crude jokes and exclude him from social activities.

Im pleased to say that we have had some very challenging dialogues because not everyone in the circle is coming to say, Oh, I totally respect everyone, she said. You do have situations where a particular student is going to say, Well, I dont blame them for isolating him. I wouldnt want to hang out with a gay person.

Its at that point Wittes said the group has to really go there.

What does everybody think about that? What if somebody in the group is gay? Thats going to be very hurtful, she said. And are there times in your life, perhaps not for being gay, but when you have felt very excluded and how did that feel for you?

Wittes said such interaction helps to begin building a commonality where people understand that whatever the source of being excluded is, the pain is still there.

We need to learn to sort of open up so that we can connect with other people and step into their shoes and understand what their pain is and understand that its not OK to inflict that, that were all very different, and we need to acknowledge that difference, and really acknowledge the fact were all the same and being hurt in that way hurts everyone across the board.

The Canadian Centre for Diversity recently held its Teaching Leaders to Lead training workshop helping prepare youth volunteers to be forum facilitators.

Jeff Wong, 20, said he was encouraged to meet other youth who share similar interests in helping others and promoting diversity.

What I hope to achieve from talking to students ... is just helping them kind of show that they really are people who can change the future, and theyre in the position to do so.

The organization is slated to hold a Young Leaders Forum for the first time outside the Toronto area in the Atlantic provinces in April. Wittes said they also hope to be able to head west next year, likely to Calgary.