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CONNECTING TOMORROW'S
changemakers

Team Banner Photo

Our Story

Apathy is Boring was founded in 2004, when a choreographer, a filmmaker, and a fashion photographer met at a party. Troubled by how few of their friends were actively participating in Canada's democracy, Ilona Dougherty, Paul Shore and Mackenzie Duncan started an online campaign to mobilize youth to vote during the 2004 federal election.

Today, we work year round to support and educate youth to become active and contributing citizens in Canada's democracy. 

Our vision is a Canada where every young Canadian is an active citizen, and youth are meaningfully engaged in all aspects of the democratic process. 

This is more than just voting. It is about setting up youth to find their lane for engagement and ultimately, take charge of the conditions they live in.


 

Guiding Principles

We believe that all citizens have both the right and the responsibility to participate in society and to shape our shared institutions, together. We also believe that those institutions should reflect and enhance the lives of those who they serve. This includes acting in the interest of the public and preserving the social contract.

We value and embrace diverse perspectives, ideas, and backgrounds. We do not just acknowledge different perspectives, but we also appreciate and respect them as a critical signal of a healthy democracy. We're all about being open-minded and encouraging positive conversations to bridge gaps and foster unity and belonging.

 We believe in the fundamental rights and dignity of all individuals, promoting solutions rooted in equality, justice, and fairness. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect and fairness under the law. We believe that removing barriers to equal rights and opportunity makes our democracy more equal, fair, and representative.

We believe in the power of working together and the value of finding common ground. Change happens through citizens coming together and building bases of power to achieve common goals. Successful movements require openness but also a desire to foster new ideas, perspectives, and connections to build and advance solutions.

Young people should be equally represented in all levels of our democracy. We create space for youth in decision making roles because we know that youth are often under-represented. We support and encourage governments and institutions to do the same. We believe in the value of young people’s perspectives, capacity, and ideas and the unfairness of their exclusion. We believe in intergenerational partnerships that combine youth innovation with implementation experience to enhance outcomes for everyone and advocate for each to be valued.

Our Approach

Gather Knowledge

Every activity undertaken by Apathy is Boring begins with a discussion of the research that we need to do. Starting with this “homework” has two benefits: it ensures that we’ve correctly identified and analyzed the problems we’re tackling, and it helps us be efficient. We draw on knowledge from both practitioners and researchers. If there’s a lack of information, we start by conducting our own research.

Experiment & Innovate

Apathy is Boring is not afraid to experiment and innovate. Before we commit to a new activity, we test different ways to accomplish our mission. We also gather program level and strategic level data for each of our activities and programs. This data is used not only to evaluate the performance of each activity and program, but also allows us to identify high- impact solutions for the problems we’re tackling.

Maximize Impact

Apathy is Boring is a social innovator in the field of youth engagement. After testing and refining an activity, our next step is to maximize its impact. When we have the capacity to do so, we expand the reach of our own programs. Otherwise, we give our ideas away. By taking this “open source” approach and sharing our knowledge and strategies with other youth engagement stakeholders, Apathy is Boring can affect far more youth than any one organization could ever reach directly; this is why partnerships are key to our approach.

Democracy Framework

Democracy Framework

Our Democracy Framework outlines our 5 pillars for a healthy democracy.

Annual Reports