ANNUAL VISUALEYES YOUTH CONFERENCE A BIG SUCCESS

Over 130 students attended this year's Visualeyes 2006 Junior High
Youth Conference held at Christ the King school, Nov. 3

Over 130 students attended this year's Visualeyes 2006 Junior High
Youth Conference held at Christ the King school, Nov. 3.

Hosted by the Youth Issues Working Group, the annual conference was
designed to arm students with the tools to make appropriate choices in life.

The day-long conference subsequently titled, Choices, consisted of
presenters offering interesting and interactive opportunities for
students to develop skills to make positive choices in areas relevant
to them, said Lorraine Whipple, co-ordinator of the Leduc Community
Drug Action Committee, one of the many partners that make up the
Youth Issues Working Group.

"The youth were totally engaged," said Whipple, adding topics covered
in the Choices conference included relationships, bullying, drugs and
alcohol. "Throughout the conference there was the message of hope.
Youth are often being told to not do this or that, but there is no
reality to it. The conference gave them the opportunity to hear real
stories about making positive choices and the consequences of making
bad choices."

The conference, often a year-long planning process, owes much of its
success to all the partners involved, said Whipple.

"The students didn't get the feeling they were being preached to, but
felt presenters were sharing information. Kids are going to make
choices so we need to give them the full scope of the reality of
making them and that it is what this conference did," she added.

The Youth Issues Working Group consists of partnerships between Leduc
Family and Community Support Services, the Boys and Girls Club of
Leduc, Leduc Community Drug Action Committee, AADAC, RCMP, St. Thomas
Aquinas Roman Catholic schools and Black Gold Regional schools.