City Hall has a direct impact on many of the key issues that youth care about. Housing. Transit. Local climate action.

But it’s hard for people to speak up and get involved in civic matters. Especially for young people, who don’t have the time to navigate how City Hall works.

CitySHAPES and Youth Action Now are partnered to get more youth involved in building a better Ottawa.

Read on to learn about the three exciting elements of this partnership.

Youth Action Network are holding a contest in early 2025 for the best Ottawa city socials, and they are giving away prizes.

If you’re on social media, and have something to say about your city, then say it out loud. Create something on your socials that relates to municipal issues – transit, housing, police, parks, garbage, trees, traffic … – and tag it on Instagram with #Our613 and @YouthActionNow

There will be prize money to the best entries posted by youth, up to age 30. Whatever format you like — memes, reels, long videos, posts, podcasts, …

Just focus it on issues that your City Hall has some control over.

Find more information on the official page of the best Socials in the City contest.

Get Your Way at City Hall.

We’re training Ottawa-area youth on how to most effectively advocate for a better city. Whether that’s transit, housing or something else, we’re bringing our Playbook for Effective Advocacy to life for youth leaders.

CitySHAPES and Youth Action Now are hosting an in-person training session in late January. The training will follow the outline of our highly-rated workshops.

Youth leaders from across the City are invited to apply to join this training, at no cost. We’ve only got room for 20 individuals, so in the application, tell us why it should be you.

Youth Action Now has been providing start-up and momentum grants to youth organizations since its founding.

Youth, up to age 30, are now welcome to apply to a new city building sub stream within the community building grant stream.

Apply through the same application form as other Youth Action Now grants. This follows the same guidelines and conditions as other YAN grants, but with a focus on groups and initiatives that are working to build a better city.