AFCLA G10+ introduces its youth leaders

By S.C. Baysa
Pinoy Hour

Productive was the closest word to choose when describing this meeting as municipal leaders from the Alberta Fil-Can Community Leaders Association (AFLCA G10+) organized their very first youth based workshop titled the Youth L.O.V.E. Workshop (Leaders Organizing Volunteer Engagement) to officially present its emerging young leaders who are poised to guide the future. 

The venue for this two-day event was held on the weekend of February 8th and 9th, 2025, in the Action Dignity facility in Calgary. After the formation of AFCLA, the president of the association, Jan Cacayuran began building another subsection oriented towards having an active presence in the youth. Not only to create fun and interactive events, but to also help those who are struggling in the mental health side. With those goals in mind, the Youth L.O.V.E. was created with their first workshop already concluded. 

The overall focus for the workshop was to plan out four sections that can be implemented in events and programs: Leadership, Arts, Sports, and the more ambitious project to be set out in the summer of 2025, the Banff Youth Camp. 

The Banff Youth Camp is to be the Youth L.O.V.E.’s main focus as most of the programs within this event will be planned thoroughly and taken care of by the Youth L.O.V.E. members along with the guidance of the AFCLA G10+ to help make the event much more engaging and promising. The president of the Youth L.O.V.E., Genesis L., left a gratifying message to all who attended the workshop. 

“I just wanted to thank everyone for coming, especially the parents for supporting the youth today to just grow and be able to support us in a way we can. I also just want to thank the youth who are willing to just show up and be a part of the community and to actually be there to volunteer and help grow this plan.” 

Youth representatives from across Alberta convened, with Southern Alberta contributing the highest number of delegates. Among them, four promising young leaders hailed from both Lethbridge and Taber: Yesha U., Sel C.B., Elmo B., & Jm M. The president of AFCLA, Jun Cacayuran also had left a province-wide announcement about the future events planned by Youth L.O.V.E. 

“We have four major events in this year’s project. We have the capacity building leadership building, second, we have the cultural arts caravan to be held in Calgary, then there’s the sports tournament to be held in the city of Airdrie, and the most spectacular event being the Youth Camp which will be held at the Banff National Park.” The two-day event was replete with innovative ideas and opportunities, leading the group to feel that the duration was insufficient, prompting the scheduling of a follow-up meeting for the upcoming spring.