Collaborating With Youth for Community Safety: Insights From the Halifax Workshops
On November 4, 2025, twelve remarkable youth shared their insights on what would make Halifax a safer place during the opening ceremony of the CCFSC Annual Conference. Their message was clear: the city must listen to their voices and act on their recommendations to meaningfully improve how young people navigate and experience Halifax. Prevention of violence starts with actually making spaces safer for youth.
This session was part of a broader consultation process that began in March 2025 with community organizations and continued with a workshop involving twenty-three youth. Together, they mapped vulnerable areas in the city and developed recommendations for a safer Halifax, which were presented publicly for the first time at the conference.
This work with youth was made possible through the strong partnership between HRM, CCFSC, and CPN-PREV. It demonstrated that when we collaborate as true partners, we can unite our strengths in service of youth who deserve nothing less.
Youth from diverse backgrounds and gender identities came together with one unified message about what safety means: safety is about having a space to be, to exist, and to engage.
The experience was grounded in an Indigenous opening ceremony led by Elder Geri, accompanied by the drumming of Angela Doyle-Faulkner. The work with the youth was co-facilitated by Ghayda Hassan and Zeina Ismail-Allouche.
Listening to youth voices for a safer Halifax is a call to action. Youth play a pivotal role in shaping strategies rooted in dignity, relationality, and reciprocity, guiding us toward a city where all young people can truly thrive.
To learn more, consult our recent workshop reports: