Channeling Youth Voices explores the daily challenges and survival strategies of young adults in Chilliwack who have experienced barriers such as housing precarity, problems with substance use, poverty, mental health issues, and/or the loss of a supportive figure. Responding to local research and youth committees calling for attention to youth transitioning into adulthood (“aging out”), Channeling Youth Voices particularly focuses on residents aged 19-26.
Some of these youth elected to engage in a “Reflection Series” in which they documented their answers to the following questions: — What is most on your mind today? — How are you dealing or coping with it? — What is/was the best part of today?
The visual results of this activity were formed into a documentary which, far from only focusing on the challenges and barriers, also explores survival skills and strategies employed by young adults in the Fraser Valley. This documentary forms a starting point for discussion grounded in reflections and recommendations from youth whose experiences have made them the supposed target of various supports before 19, but who often face a drastic gap in those supports as they breach the category of “adulthood.”
