Youth Voices Rising: Recovery & Resilience in Fort McMurray

Dr. Plush was awarded a grant from Mitacs for an action research project to raise awareness of and advocate for the rights of disaster-affected youth within community decision-making processes.

The Fort McMurray fire is projected to be the costliest disaster in Canada’s history, requiring a multifaceted response. Of concern is that when disasters occur, young people are often portrayed as victims with little to contribute to their own recovery. The action research project “Youth Voices Rising” aims to challenge this status quo response through strategies of social innovation, participatory video and digital storytelling. The research process will not only amplify young people’s concerns in Fort McMurray. It will also explore more broadly how to increase possibilities for the concerns of disaster-affected youth to be respectfully received, valued and responded to within community decision-making processes. The research will support the Canadian Red Cross in reducing young people’s vulnerability to disaster impacts; increase youth capacity for response; and ultimately improve the long-term resilience, well-being and citizenship of young people under threat from future disasters and climate change.