Community Conversations had a different feel and a new venue this past week as the monthly discussion moved to Golden Secondary School in an effort to involve the community’s youth.
The school’s library was full with both students and members of the community for the lunch time discussion that included donated pizza from Columbia Basin Trust.
The discussion centred around what Golden should look like in the year 2034, twenty years from now. Attendees were divided into groups and asked to answer three important questions about Golden’s future.
1. What facilities would you like Golden to have?
2. What kinds of jobs would you like to see in Golden?
3. What kind of community would you like Golden to be?
Having youth at the discussion brought a different dynamic to the conversation and it was agreed that it would be great to include students in the future if possible.
“What I noticed was there was really good engagement from the youth, I was pretty impressed,” said Mayor Christina Benty.
“A lot of the adult participants really enjoyed the event and they thought that the youth engaged really well.”
The next Community Conversation event will take place on May 7 at the Civic Centre with the theme being economic development.
That night, the Town’s youth focus group met at the Madtrapper Pub for a discussion that included Mayor Benty as well as five of the six town councillors (Coun. Keith Hern was the only absentee).
Mayor Benty was also pleased with both the turnout and discussion.
“We sat for over two hours and had a pretty rigorous conversation about being involved in local government, about paying attention, getting educated, about communication and about voting,” Mayor Benty said.
“We covered a wide range of topics but it was a good, intellectual conversation. It was very interesting.”
The youth focus group is scheduled to meet again in early May, an event that will likely take place again at the Madtrapper Pub.
