Jessica
Yee is fearless in her audacity as an organizer, educator, writer,
facilitator, and activist. At 23 she has already spent almost half
of her life committed to promoting and supporting youth, through
feminist and aboriginal activism and has created numerous platforms
to channel these movements. Jessica Yee is the 2009 Young Woman
of Distinction.
When
most twelve year olds were engaged in pop culture, Jessica was volunteering
at a shelter for women fleeing abuse, an experience that fueled
her desire to help other women. A multiracial Indigenous young woman
of Chinese and Mohawk ancestry her work focuses on sexual and reproductive
health initiatives. Jessica is the founder and director of the Native
Youth Sexual Health Network, a North America-wide organization working
on issues of healthy sexuality, cultural competency, youth empowerment,
reproductive justice, and sex positivity by and for Native youth.
She has travelled across the continent mobilizing individuals, families,
and communities alike to reclaim their ancestral rights to govern
their own bodies.
In
the past few years she worked on the front lines in South Dakota
to repeal the ban on abortion in the first U.S. state to illegalize
abortion since Roe v. Wade. In November 2008, she led the Emergency
Native American Task Force. At Canadians for Choice, a pro-choice,
non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring reproductive choice
for all Canadian women, Jessica brought a new generation of young
women into the pro-choice struggle and challenged the movement to
become more diverse and youth centered. She has organized numerous
pro-choice conferences in Toronto for young women and initiated
the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Committee to address
the realities faced in Aboriginal communities that so often go unnoticed.
Jessica
is an advocate for the voice of youth, and uses the arts as a valuable
means to meet youth where they are, on their terms. She has written
and directed performances of the Choice Monologues, a compilation
of one-person skits in which people relate their experience of being
faced with an unplanned pregnancy in a variety of circumstances,
provinces, and eras. She is also the National Youth Coordinator
for the Taking Action Project - Art and Aboriginal Youth Leadership
for HIV Prevention, which involves Aboriginal youth in different
parts of Canada as HIV prevention leaders, using both traditional
art forms and new media approaches.
Currently,
she is collaborating with Good for Her on a pilot project called
the Sexual Health Education and Pleasure Project (SHEPP) for youth
in Toronto, that aims to challenge conventional methods of sex education
and look at empowering young people with practical pleasure-based
information. Jessica is the Youth Coordinator for the Highway of
Tears Initiative, which is focused on the disappearances and murders
of Aboriginal women in British Columbia, where she recently completed
filming and directing the documentary "Building a Highway of
Hope". She is a Board Member of Maggies: Sex Workers
Organizing, and has been an equity and diversity presenter for the
Law Society of Upper Canada. She is also currently teaching with
the Alberta Society for the Promotion of Sexual Health, where she
designs and facilitates online courses to participants across Canada
Jessica
is an activist of the Web 2.0 generation, using Facebook, blogs,
and online magazines and forums to speak, mobilize and educate people
on issues that she is passionate about. Her articles have appeared
on Racialicious.com, rabble.ca, section15.ca, FEMINISTING.com, in
Shameless Magazine, in the Turtle Island Native News and she has
contributed to the Globe and Mail. She also coordinated and edited
the much anticipated "Sex Ed and Youth: Colonization, Communities
of Colour, and Sexuality", published by the Canadian Centre
for Policy Alternatives.
Jessica
welcomes everyone into her circle, and encourages them through her
enthusiasm, open vibrant personality and genuine care. She is an
inspiring role model for other young women and girls who have participated
in her workshops.
The
Young Woman of Distinction Award includes a $3,000 grant from the
Julia M. Ruby Fund at YWCA Toronto. With this grant, Jessica intends
to pursue a Masters Degree in Health Promotion and to train with
SHINE SA, Sexual Health Information Networking and Education in
Australia. It is world-renowned for its Indigenous feminist roots
and is a leader in culturally competent sexual education awareness.
For her fierce spirit and commitment to young women, Jessica Yee
is the YWCA 2009 Young Woman of Distinction.
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