Career? Education? Stress!

When it comes to big decisions, small steps can be best when transitioning to adulthood. Karisa Mackey is a Program Coordinator for Children’s Services Advancing Futures Bursary. She says youth can call them at any time and begin a journey without knowing where they will end up.

“You don't have to know what you want to do before you come to our program”, says Karisa, “You can come to us and we can kind of brainstorm. I think that that's one of the biggest misconceptions youth have is thinking that they need to have to have a high school diploma and be able to apply to post-secondary. That’s not true!”

No pressure!

If you are starting to think about your next steps, try not to feel pressure. Instead, reach out to people who know you.

“Talk to the people who know you best and what they think you would be good at. It might be something like working with children or animals. Then we can narrow it down. But just talk to people and then google, google, google!”

Learn about yourself online

A website like Alis is a great resource to learn about yourself and things you can do for your future. Karisa says that decisions made now can always change and adapt to fit your life and goals.

“Don't feel too much pressure!”, says Karisa, “Because you know what? If you come into the program saying you want to be a tradesperson and you've applied and you get two sessions in and you're like, ‘you know what? this isn’t what I thought it was’ or ‘my grandpa encouraged me to do this, and I thought I should, but this is not where I want to be.’ You can always change your mind.”

Bumps are to be expected

The Advancing Futures Program Coordinators can help you in a lot of creative and flexible ways. They are many options for your future and of course, there will be bumps along the way. Karisa says the key is to keep them informed if things change or you start to struggle.

“If you call and let people know what's happening, there is stuff that we can do within our program that can support you.”