New name, new logo, new look!

At yesterday’s AGM, we unveiled BYTE’s new logo and new name. After 17 years of “Bringing Youth Towards Equality,” our official name is now “BYTE: Empowering Youth.”

“It’s a name that we think more accurately reflects what we do,” says BYTE’s Executive Director Chris Rider. “We’ve evolved a lot since the Bringing Youth Towards Equality began as a grassroots organization.”

BYTE founder and musician Nicole Edwards was a big fan of the change. She says that when she and a group of Whitehorse youth founded BYTE, they were working from a broader ideological movement and “Bringing Youth Towards Equality” reflected that.

“It was about being inclusive and being heard in the community, and it was about everyone,” says Nicole. “But there was always that question, ‘what does BYTE do?’”

The new name, says Nicole, makes it easier to understand what BYTE is about.

“I appreciate that now, after so many years, BYTE has identified a particular gap that needs to be filled and you’re filling that gap,” says Nicole. “It all comes down to youth empowerment and unlocking youth potential.”

In addition to announcing the new name, we also unveiled our new logo. A few weeks ago, we posted two options for the new logo on our website and asked our audience to vote for their favourite. One logo was a clear winner, and now we’ve added it to our website, social media, and printed materials.

 

 

We’ve also updated our mission statement, which is “to unlock potential through youth empowerment.” This means that everything we do is about empowering youth to gain skills, experience, and confidence to grow into whoever they want to be.

At yesterday’s AGM, BYTE staff, board members, and members of the public gathered to go over these changes and discuss what we’ll be working on in the coming year.

Some of our upcoming projects include more sessions of our MOVE! Youth Ending Violence program. In The past, we’ve delivered MOVE! twice a year, but thanks to funding from CIBC and United Way Yukon, we’ll be able to run MOVE! four or five times in 2015-2016.

We’re also working with the Yukon College to run Battle of the Bands at the Future Routes Music Festival this September, and are planning to deliver our newest workshop, Healthy Minds, to even more communities, thanks to a new partnership with Northwestel.

We’re also excited to welcome two new board members, Felicia Bailey-Cashin and Adria Collins. Felicia has been BYTE’s Graphic Design Intern for the past year, and will bring a fresh youth perspective to the board. Adria worked as the Conference Coordinator for Yukon UpStarts this year, and brings her experience as a project coordinator, facilitator, and youth worker.

Thanks to everyone who came out and showed support for our organization! Here’s to another great year!