Kaitlyn Gillelan is a participant in Coady’s Oceanpath Fellowship for young leaders. As part of the fellowship, she is completing a nine-month community phase, implementing an art therapy program for youth in the isolated northern community of Pond Inlet, Nunavut, Canada.

“My connection to the community of Pond Inlet first started during the summer of 2015 when I was volunteering as a peer health educator,” Kaitlyn says. “While I was there, I had the opportunity to foster strong relationships with youth during our after school programming.”

“Art is an extremely powerful tool that can be used as a coping mechanism for building resiliency,” she adds. “Our idea is to use art as a medium for self-expression, to go through the journey of strengthening the voices of youth.”

Kaitlyn is a graduate of Queen’s University, an Oceanpath fellow, and now a G(irls)20 Summit delegate.

G(irls)20 is an organization that aims to place young women at the centre of decision-making processes.

From more than 1,600 applications worldwide, 24 delegates are selected to attend the annual global summit. Each delegate represents one of the participating G20 countries, plus one delegate each representing African Union, MENA (Middle East and Northern Africa), South America, and Indigenous peoples in Canada.

Kaitlyn will represent Canada at the 10th summit, hosted in Tokyo, Japan.

“By centering young women’s experience and expertise at the centre of the G20 process, the G(irls)20 Summit seeks to equip world leaders with a new, youth-informed approach to close the gap once and for all between men and women around the world,” the organization’s website states.

In May, Kaitlyn will fly to Tokyo to participate in the weeklong summit, concluding with the development of a summit communique, which the group will deliver to world leaders in advance of the annual G20 Summit. Following the summit, Kaitlyn and her peers will each launch a community development project in their respective countries using their newly developed skills.

Congratulations, Kaitlyn.