Conference Overview

Recordings of sessions are found here.

Conference Overview: The Child Friendly Community Conference, starting on November 20^th, coincides with the UN World Children’s Day, Canada’s National Child Day, and the Ottawa Child Friendly Community Day. It brings together an array of local and international experts to shed light on what makes a child friendly home and a child friendly school. A brainstorming session on the final day will begin the planning for a follow-up conference on what makes a child friendly community beyond home and school. The overall goal of the conference is to help our community to emerge from the pandemic on track to a hope-filled new normal based upon the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

More than a conference, the event is a rally cry. The changes we dream of achieving begin with us imagining the possibilities. Pre-conference materials are provided to spark imaginations and to energize people to start the community conversations that will make us the vanguards of a promising new normal.

Sir Ken Robinson has well described the task before us in his video Thoughts on the Call to Unite. We pay tribute to the enormous contribution he has made to how we think about young people.

Conference Links:

1. The Conference as a Tool
2. The Schedule
3. Session Descriptions
4. Speakers’ Bios
5. Pre-conference Preparation Materials

The conference is free so that all can attend.
In lieu of a conference fee: June Girvan, our wise inspiration, asks that you share your bounty. Make a donation to a group working to make a child friendly community or perform some act of kindness. In the Ottawa area, groups working to secure good futures for children and youth, such as Youth Ottawa, the Ottawa Boys and Girls Club and Ecology Ottawa, would welcome you help.

A grassroots event: This conference is totally funded by volunteers who have united under the banner Uniting for Children and Youth. Everyone, including the speakers has donated his or her time.