Our young people are doing badly. Four little words that alone sum up the state of more than 45,000 children and adolescents in Quebec. The young people of the DPJ are suffering the blows and repercussions of the pandemic. And this, for several months. Without their voice being heard. Or so little. While the public system around them and its reform make the headlines, what are we doing? We, as individuals, as corporate citizens… as humans?
Impotence. This is the feeling that generally inhabits us when we hear the testimonies of young people from the DPJ. They experienced violence, abuse, neglect, screaming, beatings, fear… Suffering of such magnitude that an adult would bend their back under their weight. A baggage of life already so filled with horrors, at an age when play and dreams should occupy all space. Yet they remain standing. Sometimes broken, sometimes extinct, but they are there and they exist.
When illness strikes a child, a feeling of great injustice takes hold of us. As adults, we stand up and support him in his fight. We are there and we are growing strong for him. But when human injustice strikes a child, where are we? What message do we send to this young man who heard so much that he was worth nothing? “The system will take care of you. And we go back to our business.
But as the system actualizes and reforms, we have the power to do something. Each of us, individuals and companies, live up to our means.
Yes, let’s be on the lookout for the decisions of our governments and listen to the various experts. But let’s go further! Let us support the organizations that help these young people, during their childhood and after their transition to adulthood. This is a concrete way to contribute. My commitment obviously goes to the Youth Foundation of the DPJ, which acts directly in the field to offer children and adolescents what they need to rebuild themselves. Transform the view they have of themselves. And believe that for them, too, the future has something good to offer.
Funding scholarships, a first apartment, tutoring sessions… these actions go far beyond solving a one-off problem. For a young person who has never been chosen in his life, to learn that he will go to a soccer camp is to understand that someone thinks it is worth it. It is to feel that ultimately he too is important.
As the holiday season approaches, let’s mobilize for the youth of the DPJ! Let us stop being powerless in the face of their suffering and let us say loud and clear to each of them: “You are important too!” ”
* Yvon Roy is Senior Director – Quebec Venture Capital and Technologies, at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ)
What do you think? Express your opinion