The competition

In a few words

Voices of Olympia Canada (VOOC) is a global citizenship learning - based initiative that offers a Juried School Competition open to secondary school girls in Canada. It uses a human rights approach to reflect on the central theme of gender inequalities and its impact on the empowerment of girls and women. This competition involves: collaborative and team work, use of diverse sources of information, critical thinking, public speaking, writing, innovation, parental and community participation. It is a unique opportunity to empower young girls in joining the global conversation on issues affecting girls and women, to let their voices be heard and their actions influence policies that foster equality and social justice.

VISION-1-kiana-bosman-wSSTkMDMvZo-unsplash.jpg

Goal

The school competition Voices of Olympia Canada aims at raising awareness about the intersectionality of challenges faced by girls and women around the world. It transposes the discussions on those challenges from the UN Commission on the Status of women (UN-CSW) session, into a local context where high school students in Canada are invited to harvest evidence as a basis to ponder on a specific challenge in order to:

  • Critically analyze this global challenge in a Canadian context and propose some avenues for solutions in a written essay.

  • Practice public speaking through an oral presentation while translating knowledge to a selected audience.

  • Join the global conversation through a 3 minutes video that illustrates results of the analysis, and will be shared with a network of international advocacy organizations.

 
2030canada.png

Theme

The Voices of Olympia Canada school competition transposes into Canadian context, the priority theme that is discussed at the UN Commission on the Status of women (UN-CSW) session, which is held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, during the month of March each year. In addition, each competition theme aligns with the Sustainable Goals of the United Nations Agenda 2030, primarily:

  • Objective 1: No poverty

  • Objectif 3: Good health and well being

  • Objective 4: Quality Education

  • Objective 5: Gender Equality

  • Objective 13: Climate action

These themes are compatible with broad Canadian initiatives, mainly:

  • Canada’s policy on Gender equality,

  • Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy,

  • Canada’s National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security,

  • Canada’s Climate Plan.

ECHEANCIER-2-jon-tyson-r9T0LZv8xWQ-unsplash.jpg

Project milestone

  • Fall: Official launch of the competition

  • Fall - Winter: Selected participants work on their projects

  • Early spring : Evaluation by the Jury Late

  • Spring: Award Ceremony

*Exact dates to be determined after consulting with participants.

 
keith-luke-GUAcpXPyFRc-unsplash.jpg

Scholarships

Scholarships are awarded to the best four projects:

  • 1st Prize: $ 2 500

  • 2nd Prize: $ 2 000

  • 3rd Prize : $ 1 500

  • 4th Prize: $ 1 000

Each participant is honoured with a certificate attesting to the community hours involved in the competition.