Alliances and awesomeness.

I never did my blog introduction (sorry!) but I thought I would post while here at this fabulous assembly!

I'm Kaitlyn - the youth rep for Anglophone Canada, from Ottawa. I'm so thrilled to be a part of this dynamic and motivating discussion of where we've been, where we're at, and where we're going.

I'm very inspired by the forward-thinking discussion being had by all here. We just took part in a workshop where each group divided up and discussed priorities and strategies for implementation. Our group was discussing how we should adjust our strategies to address our changing role in the Catholic Community as well as the current Canadian political context.

I was a little bit worried about how concrete and solution-based our discussions would be, but it turns out that I had nothing to fear! I feel really confident about the strategies that have emerged from this section. What excited me most is the discussion around building alliances with other groups within th Catholic community, other international social justice organizations, and strengthening links with the Catholic education systems. We have so much to gain by working together - the opportunity to raise our own public profile, the enhanced capacity to lobby the government in favour of stronger support for international development, a chance to learn from the experiences and stories of other groups and their members, a larger network of contacts that can be mobilized for our educational campaigns - the list is endless! Pretty stellar, eh? :)

Thank you for your presence, virtual or physical, and I can't wait to see what comes out of the rest of this weekend!

In solidarity,

Kaitlyn DK