Okay, I’m going to talk about peer education for a second. Peer education is this dirty word in some contexts, like I can’t use the word peer educator if I’m talking to, let’s say, the EMSB. I would rather say youth leadership opportunities because for them they see peer education as, “Oh my God. They’re going to take over the teacher’s role in the school, and they’re going to be taking on too much responsibility.” And they’re worried that they might damage the youth in the process of doing that, like they might have some emotional crisis and no one will be around to support them. That’s one. But when I’m running to a funder, I’m all about peer education. I’m just like "youth leading the world" basically give us money to do that because that’s really almost fetishized in that realm, and in the other realm it’s demonized, so it’s really interesting dynamic there.

And also, I think that when I use the term youth with administrators or educators and stuff like that, I don’t try to diminish their so-called inexperience or naivety around certain issues. I don't try to say they're experts all on their own, obviously not. But Head & Hands tries it - the way that we see youth, we see them as authorities. We see them as authorities over their own experiences, and we try to, not to say enlighten, but to kind of put that across when we’re talking to administrators, try to like let them see the nuances there, and when we have guidance counselors say, “Oh, why do you even bother coming to our school? They don’t care these youths. They don’t give a shit about you guys, like they’re never ever going to budge they're staying here, and they don’t want any type of opportunity. They’re hopeless.” And then we come in, and we give them a chance and like that is the school that has now a GSA. It’s Outreach. The most active group of students in the school that had no after-school,( it’s Option, sorry), no after-school activities, nothing available to them, and the peer educators started a GSA where they have like weekly discussions on homophobia, and they show films, and they bring in speakers, and it’s interesting if you just give them a chance what can happen.

Miriam: And do you think that being technically a youth yourself representing the concept of youth to different adults, let’s say stakeholder groups, does that put you in a weird position?

Christina:
It does. I mean, in some cases, they give me the, “Oh my God. You’re so amazing. You’re so young. Oh my God, you’re so young.” And I feel like they’re going to like pinch my cheeks. I’m kind of creeped out by it. This comes up a lot in terms of professionalism when I’m, let’s say going to a fundraising meet and greet, a 5 - 7 fancy, schmancy, people are drinking wine and eating cheese, and I have all these older people in their 50s and 60s see me as like this amazing person, like child prodigy almost, and I’m like, “Wow, I’m not that young. It’s not uncommon.” Then, I also have, when I’m at the EMSB they see me as unprofessional person. They see me coming from a radical youth organization, that I have no credibility because I have a degree in creative writing and women studies, and I’m a fundraiser, first of all so I’m just out to get their money, and I’m a threat. I’m not necessarily somebody who they would respect, and so, that's what it comes down to like all of these partnerships is like how well can we respect, how well can I sit back and understand what they’re trying to tell me, and frame that in my own head and not react in this very kind of outlandish, like angry way, and how well can they actually listen to what I’m saying and to take me seriously. So definitely, a difficult position to be in, in terms of wanting to be seen as a professional, but not necessarily wanting to professionalize the services that we offer at Head & Hands. So we have some privileges in being like seen as not professionals, but also, it’s frustrating, and so part of my job is to validate our approach, to validate Head & Hands’ philosophy, and to do that, I have to be very creative with the way that I use English language for peer education etc...