Child Advocate releases new direction, logo in latest annual report
- EFN Staff | April 26, 2018
The Advocate for Children and Youth has released the 2017 Annual Report, which was tabled in the Saskatchewan Legislature by MLA Mark Docherty on April 24th, 2018.
Corey O’Soup, Advocate for Children and Youth, said the report signifies the change in the direction of our office.
“From an office that was waiting for tragedy and reacting, to an office that is going to be a part of the solution and moving forward, and how to stop our next children and youth from dying,” he said. “I think that’s a positive piece that we want to focus on moving forward.”
Along with the release of the 2017 annual report, a new logo of the Saskatchewan Advocate for Children and Youth was released. O’Soup said after he took office over a year and a half ago, he felt a disconnection to the old logo and felt a change was needed.
“I felt like we needed to align our logo with our current vision and practice for the future. For me, the logo signifies that new direction, that new alignment, that we are heading in,” he said. “That new direction is focused on building better relationships with our First Nation and Metis people across the province.”
The logo consists the shape of the province of Saskatchewan with an abstract drawing of an adult and a child. There’s three starblanket stars included to make the logo spear distinct and Indigenous.
“We felt like that was important. Another piece to our vision is education and the importance of education for our children and youth, and mental health,” said O’Soup. “Also, empowering children and youth to be change makers within their communities. That’s what part of the design of the logo should be able to tell you.”
O’Soup hopes for governments and leaderships to take the positive stories in the 2017 annual report and to consider those when making investments into children and youth in the province.
“It seems so often that when cuts come and our budgets get tight, that our children and youth, and particularly Indigenous children, youth, and families, can’t take the brunt of those cuts,” he said. “What I’m hoping is that they will see that investing in our kids, investing in them young, and early on, will pay amazing dividends in the future…there’s some positive ways that we can make change in the future.”
The main highlights in the 2017 Annual Report, which can be accessed on their website, are the positive stories they’ve included from across the province. He and his staff wanted to look for positive initiative programs that are happening in communities so they can bring them back to their office. He hopes with the report that people see the new direction they are taking and that they want to be a part of the solution. “We just don’t want to wait for tragedy to happen, we want to get out in front of it,” O’Soup said. “I think that’s where this annual report is taking us in that direction.”