Apply by Friday, February 5!
Tentative Plan:
The Youth Retreat will be held near Edmonton at Rundle’s Mission (Thorsby, AB). Participants will need to arrive the afternoon/evening of Sunday, March 6. There will be three full days of youth retreat activities (March 7, 8 and 9) plus an option to stay for a visit to the Alberta legislature on Thursday, March 10. So participants can either depart in the morning of March 10, or come to the legislature and depart the evening of March 10 or morning of March 11. Transportation to and from Edmonton will be coordinated for you.
Main Goals:
1. Continue to build and strengthen the NFU Youth and the capacity and leadership skills of NFU youth members.
2. Advance the work of the National New Farmer Coalition – specifically, develop a dissemination and engagement strategy for our New Farmer Report.
3. Strengthen the strategic collaboration with Young Agrarians and other appropriate organizations in the area and plan for more farmer engagement events.
4. Advance the work of various NFU committees/working groups – Strategic Development, Alternative Media, Branding, International Programs Committee, Seed and Trade, GMO and Pesticides, etc.
5. Participate in a NFU Youth/Young Agrarians social in order to connect with and engage other young farmers in the region
6. Optional: Meet with members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta to discuss new farmer issues and the work of the National New Farmer Coalition
Application to participate:
We have some funding for the costs of travel and accommodation but will ask participants to contribute $150 each towards the budget and encourage any fundraising. Selection of participants will be based on regional diversity, costs, and level of engagement in NFU (ideally we would like some more experienced members and some newer members). If you are interested in taking part in this event please reply to nfuyouth@nfu.ca by Feb 5th with the following information (short, informal, bullets are fine):
- What region are you from / where will you be traveling from and what is roughly the cost to get you to Edmonton and back?
- What has been your involvement in the NFU?
- Briefly describe your farming involvement or, if a non-farming associate member, describe your involvement in food/farming issues relevant to the NFU/NFU Youth.
- We generally ask participants to research and prepare a short presentation on a farm/food issue they are interested in. Are you willing to do this and if so, what issue or issues might you cover?
- Would you stay for the Thursday afternoon visit to the AB legislature? (Note: this will not affect your application, we would just like to estimate numbers).
Contact Ayla Fenton, NFU Youth President, nfuyouth@nfu.ca for more information.
