FESFO is an organization representing approximately 25,000 francophone youth who attend one of Ontario’s french secondary schools from grades 9 to 12.
To help advance political issues, exchanges and collaborations are necessary. Every year, during our Annual General Assembly (AGM), students from Franco-Ontarian high schools come together to guide the work and positions of the organization, and learn how to become more involved with FESFO.
In order to properly represent the voice of Franco-Ontarian students and be an accurate political educator, FESFO creates a wide network of connections. This ensures that francophone students are listened to and considered by political leaders.
FESFO is an organization BY and FOR young francophones in Ontario.
The organization has a double mission:
Download our strategic plan (in French)
FESFO follows values that guide its actions and interventions:
Offer students the opportunity to live their francophonie in its full diversity, everywhere in Ontario.
Ensure that everyone can fully participate in our events, regardless of differences, location and financial status.
Create environments where our members feel good, allowing them to step outside their comfort zones in a safe space.
Encourage the integration and development of every student by working together towards common goals.
Discover their personality;
Understand the role they have to play in their environment in order to better identify, assess, and improve it;
Live positive and fulfilling experiences in French with other students in order to be more open to the world that surrounds them;
Find their place as francophones in their communities;
Assert themselves as Franco-Ontarians so they can take a stand by making affirming gestures as francophones.
In order to ensure all of its activities and meetings run properly, FESFO proposes 6 basic principles:
It is important to speak for yourself rather than on behalf of others because it’s impossible to know precisely what others around you are thinking. This principle is used to ensure honest communication and avoid misunderstandings.
Active listening is more constructive than passive listening – it requires signs of feedback to ensure that the person speaking knows that the message is understood.
FESFO creates an environment that allows students to experience French and LSQ (Quebec sign language) as a dynamic, fun and engaging language.
At the base of all of FESFO’s activities are commitment and voluntary participation. It is up to each person to learn with the means and tools that are offered to them.
There are many levels to this principle : respect for yourself, respect for others, for the environment, for the location of the activity, for the rules and principles, etc.
By meeting people from different backgrounds, you sometimes come across different ideas or new points of view. This is why being open-minded is necessary to create an accepting climate that favours exchanges.
FESFO is created by Franco-Ontarian students who want to ensure that they can actively participate in the development of their community.
FESFO mobilizes the community to demand the management of schools by and for francophones. With the help of the community and Franco-Ontarian schools, we send thousands of letters to the provincial government as well as postcards reading our motto : « On veut, on peut, on s’unit...on l’aura ! » (We want, we can, we unite... we’ll get it !).
With the collaboration of various organizations, FESFO organizes protests and mobilization campaigns to fight for a complete network of francophone colleges in Ontario.
FESFO organizes the first ever Jeux franco-ontariens (Franco-Ontarian Games) in Orléans.
FESFO participates in rallies, petitions, human chains and protests for the SOS Montfort movement to save the Montfort Hospital in Ottawa, the only francophone hospital in Ontario.
FESFO sends Team Ontario to the first ever edition of the Jeux de la francophonie canadienne (French Canadian Games) in Memramcook, New Brunswick.
In partnership with the Ministry of Education of Ontario and the Ontario Legislative Assembly, FESFO organizes the first ever edition of the Parlement jeunesse francophone de l’Ontario (French Youth Parliament Simulation).
This same year, FESFO establishes 4 core values : french A to Z, equity, well-being and social justice as well as ecology.
FESFO helps create the Franco-Ontarian student trustee group: Regroupement des élèves conseiller.ères francophones de l’Ontario (RECFO).
FESFO is now made up of six regions. The members of the 38th General Assembly voted in favor of dividing the South region into two distinct regions (South and Greater Toronto Area).
In partnership with the Regroupement étudiant franco-ontarien (RÉFO) and the Assemblée de la francophonie de l’Ontario (AFO), FESFO organizes a protest in front of Queen’s Park to demand the creation of a Franco-Ontarian university.
For the first time since 1994, FESFO has to postpone the Jeux franco-ontariens (Franco-Ontarian Games) due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In October of 2022, FESFO organizes its first event in person since the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 100 Franco-Ontarian students gathered in an outdoor camp for the Congrès provincial du réseau jeunesse (Provincial Congress for the Youth Network).
E-mail: info@fesfo.ca
Phone: 613-260-8055
Address: 435 Donald street, unit 207, Ottawa, ON, K1K 4X5