The Creston Valley Youth Network (CVYN) launched its own podcast late last month, with the goal being to provide youth in town with a platform to voice their opinions on a number of different local, regional or international topics.
“I look at it as skill-building, ways to communicate with other people,” said Joanne DeLisle, the coordinator for the CVYN. “It builds confidence and motivates them. It helps them develop skills — leadership skills, motivational skills.”
The first episode aired on Oct. 22, where the three hosts — Skye Poetker, Riley Loftus and Julia Huscroft — spent the session sharing their opinions on the Hunger Games film series before interviewing Skye Kennedy, a local registered nurse and anime fan.
“When we’re all together, we’re all really funny. We all have these unique personalities, and it just made it a fun time,” said Huscroft, 15.
According to Dylan Leayr, the CVYN’s youth facilitator and tech specialist, the plan is to release a podcast every month, with Poetker serving as the main host.
“We’ll have every other youth come in and rotate through, just for consistency,” said Leayr. “We want to make sure that we always have someone writing and focussed on this.”
It was the 17-year-old Poetker — who DeLisle described as very creative — who had been pushing for the idea of a podcast for two years.
“It was something that I was interested in doing. I like to write sci-fi or fantasy short stories, or parts of novels,” said Poetker.
After toying with the idea for a couple of years, the idea came to fruition after Leayr was hired earlier this year.
“Dylan has the technology skills that I don’t have. He was able to expand what the youth centre was able to do, technology-wise,” said DeLisle. “We were able to do a podcast because Dylan has all the equipment and the insight on how to do it.”
The first episode had a running time of 44 minutes. It was recorded on a Tuesday, edited by Leayr on a Wednesday and released on a Thursday.
The CVYN hopes to release the second episode later this month, and the intention is to keep episodes no longer than an hour and a half in length.
“We are finding our feet. Right now, it’s just getting everyone together and getting it organized,” said Leayr.
As for future guests, the crew has plans to feature a parkour gym-owner in Calgary, and Jo-Jo & The Teeth, a London-based band who is originally from Alberta.
“We’re trying to get people locally, but also those who show interest. We want to interview locals, but we also want to have a wider audience as well,” said Leayr.
The podcast is available on major streaming platforms, such as Youtube, Spotfiy, Apple Podcast and ask.fm.