Beth Pellettieri is the Coordinator of the International Youth Leadership Council at Advocates for Youth and the co-chair of the Toronto YouthForce Advocacy Task Force.

I arrived in Toronto yesterday morning, with AIDS 2006 banners flying high downtown and 25,000 registered participants gradually beginning to descend on the city. Although the XVI Toronto International AIDS Conference begins Sunday, organizers and activists are already in Toronto, turning months and even years of planning into action.

For the Toronto YouthForce, activities started months ago. In April, the Advocacy Taskforce of the Toronto YouthForce, which I co-chair through Advocates for Youth, organized an E-consultation to brainstorm and discuss youth advocacy messages and strategies to be implemented during AIDS 2006. In the end, we gathered and summarized the opinions of 218 youth from 36 countries on priority areas for young people, focusing on including youth unable to attend the Conference. Ideas and strategies from the E-consultation formed the key advocacy messages and materials of the Toronto YouthForce, which you will see decorating the Youth Pavilion and throughout the Main Conference areas.

And today 250 young people arrive early to meet, train, and network for the Toronto YouthForce Pre-conference. The 2 ½ day Pre-conference will better prepare youth leaders for the Main Conference, including sessions on networking with key leaders, understanding science and research, and taking the new knowledge back home.

The work of the Toronto YouthForce brings hundreds of youth participants together to give a voice in the fight against HIV/AIDS. In joining Rewire over the next weeks, enjoy news of different events and high level speakers, but also think of the many people not in Toronto making it all possible and each of the 25,000 individual activists all doing amazing work to make a difference.