Allies For Youth Connections
Empowering Hope through Authentic Connections
Conference on May 12-13th, 2025
This year we are excited to explore “Empowering Hope through Authentic Connections”.
Tickets for Allies For Youth Connection are now on sale!
Join us on May 12 & 13 at Fantasy Land for an unforgettable experience filled with incredible keynote speakers, breakout sessions, networking, and more! With limited availability, now is the time to secure your spot before they sell out. Don’t miss your chance to be part of this incredible event—get your tickets today.
Click the button to register and get ready for an amazing time!
Location:
Allies for Youth Connections Conference
May 12-13, 2025
Fantasyland Hotel, Edmonton
Youth Engagement at Kickstand
- Get Involved!
Join us for our first Youth Engagement event at Kickstand on February 27th, with sessions every two weeks until April 24th. This is a great opportunity for individuals aged 16-26 to gain hands-on experience in event planning, public speaking, and leadership while networking with professionals, speakers, and like-minded peers.
What’s in it for you?
Meals and transportation stipends
Certificate of Participation & Letter of Recommendation for future opportunities
Volunteer opportunity to work alongside our event team and ensure everything runs smoothly
Networking with professionals and peers
Experience that will look great on your resume!
Don’t miss out on this chance to make an impact and build your skills. See the Youth Engagement Recruitment poster, and apply to be part of this exciting journey!
Be an Ally. Be a Leader. Get Involved.
Call for Youth Artisans – Showcase Your Work at the Allies 4 Youth Conference 2025!
We’re excited to invite youth to submit their creative work for the Artisan Shop at our upcoming conference on May 12th and 13th! This is a fantastic opportunity to showcase your talents and have your work featured for sale during the event.
Whether you're into handmade crafts, artwork, jewelry, or other unique creations, we want to see what you can do. By submitting your work, you'll not only gain exposure, but also have the chance to network with professionals and attendees.
How to Get Involved:
Submit your work for a chance to sell at the conference
Build your portfolio and gain experience as a young artisan
Be part of a vibrant community of youth creators
Don’t miss out on the chance to share your craft and connect with others at the Artisan Shop at A4YC!
2025 Conference Keynote Speakers
Allies 4 Youth Connections
Our Conference
The Allies 4 Youth Connections Conference will bring together service providers, researchers, experts, and the youth to focus on the growing population of young people (12+) with increasingly complex needs. This conference will specifically focus on youth homelessness, indigenous youth & social justice, ethnocultural youth & trauma, and the voice of youth. We keep in mind that all youth, deserve the opportunity to live their lives in a meaningful way, to feel safe, and experience a sense of inclusion and belonging.
This work with our youth incorporates the most recent research, literature and trends in areas such as trauma, attachment and brain development in children and youth; harm reduction; resilience; strength-based practice; collaborative, multi-disciplinary practice; trauma-informed intervention.
This Conferences theme is: Empowering Hope through Authentic Connections
Our population of youth:
“[Youth in high-risk circumstances] are ‘the disconnected.’ They rarely have family to rely on. They rarely have a healthy support network to help guide them. They live risk-filled lifestyles characterized by such things as drugs, sexual exploitation, violence, living on the streets and family breakdown. They typically have difficulty trusting adults and perceive they are alone in the world… They are not ‘at-risk’ youth; they are ‘high-risk youth.’ They are not heading in a bad direction or on a path of self-destruction; they are already there…They are hard to engage, slow to change, test frequently, and challenge one’s practice, ethics, and boundaries. Many youth have shared that they expect the relationship with their child welfare workers and service providers to be problematic. Despite this, we have come to believe all high-risk youth demonstrate resiliency, they have strengths, and they do want a sense of connection. Attempting to connect with the youth can be a risk-filled journey that requires patience, but the rewards are infinite.”
*Smyth, P., & Eaton-Erickson, A. (2009). Making the connection: Strategies for working with high-risk youth. In S. McKay, D. Fuchs, & I. Brown (Eds.), Passion for action in child and family services: Voices from the prairies (pp. 119-142). Regina SK: