Young People Know Podcast - Episode 3 - Let's chat about good policy that works for people: Youth Engagement and Policy Change

Young People Know is a five-part podcast series featuring the voices and experiences of young Indigenous leaders, co-created and co-produced by the Mastercard Foundation EleV Program and Good Influence Films. Hosted by Sam Bird, a citizen of Peguis First Nation and Program Partner at the Mastercard Foundation, this series that explores the principles of effective, meaningful, and genuine youth engagement.

In conversation with Indigenous youth from across Canada, the series shares the challenges, benefits, and opportunities they face in serving on advisory councils while working to create transformative change that embeds Indigenous values, priorities and protocols into the organizations and systems that affect their lives. In this third episode, Bird explores policy - both good and bad. In speaking with young people about their experiences leading change in and through youth councils, three main themes emerged. The first is that youth are leading much needed change to how youth councils are run and are reforming how youth councils function today. Second, that youth are leading much needed policy changes, and third that young people need the organizations they work for and with, to grant them decision making power, as youth are the experts in what they need.