By Mark Campbell

Vinh Phan (BComm’07) believes youth are the future. “That sounds trite,” he acknowledges, “but when you make a change in the life of a young person, the results can be tremendous.”

This Dalhousie alumnus may be relatively young himself – he’s not yet 30 – but Phan is speaking from considerable experience. To date, the Toronto-based legal professional has been involved in the launch of two innovative initiatives dedicated to assisting marginalized young people. The first, Teen Legal Helpline, gives youths across Ontario access to free, confidential legal advice via the internet. The second, The Rumie Initiative, is dedicated to bringing free digital education content to children in communities where internet access and resources are limited.

“The intersection between youth and technology is a very natural one,” says Phan. “People under 20 aren’t afraid to jump in and try it out. The Rumie Initiative and Teen Legal Helpline deliver assistance and vital information to them in a familiar, comfortable environment.”

Phan would be the first to tell you that he grew up in a relatively comfortable environment, thanks to his parents, who fled war-torn Vietnam in the 1970s. Recalling childhood visits to the socialist republic, he remarks “you got a sense of how different it was to grow up in a privileged society like Canada compared to the rampant poverty we witnessed there. I realized not only how fortunate I am, but that I owe it to the world to try to make some small difference.”

Making an impact

It was at Dalhousie University – specifically through the Bachelor of Commerce co-op program – that Phan began to see how he could have an impact.  His first placement was with the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, where he worked as a public education assistant, delivering workshops on diversity and sexual harassment at schools and workplaces across the province. He says it was one of his managers, Linda Nicholl, who inspired him with her devotion to making the world a more tolerant, accepting place.

“The mix of experiences you get through a co-op program helps you realize where you want to work, and I realized that the public or nonprofit sector was where I wanted to be. That probably would not have happened had it not been for Dalhousie, because if were up to me, I wouldn’t have done a co-op program. They put me on that path.”

Despite dabbling in political campaigns and volunteering, it wasn’t until the University of Toronto law graduate came across Teen Legal Helpline in 2011 that he made a serious commitment to a community organization. The initiative was just getting off the ground, and Phan was tasked with developing its legal and operational framework. He would later become a Teen Legal Helpline director.

It was, as he recalls, a daunting undertaking. For one, no one had really attempted to deliver legal advice online and anonymously to young people before, at least not to the extent Teen Legal Helpline would.  And lawyers were initially reluctant to come on board, citing concerns over confidentiality and conflict of interest.

Aware that few young people had the means, knowledge or confidence to turn to a lawyer in times of trouble, Phan and his colleagues persevered, forging relationships with the legal community to fill that gap. By January 2013, Teen Legal Helpline was up and running, and when Phan left the organization last October, it was receiving, on average, one legal question per day. That may seem like a small number, but Phan says helping even one person can have a significant impact.

“That’s one person who is no longer worried about her rights being violated or being abused by a parent, and that means she can graduate from high school and go to university. When you mitigate the stress of someone’s problems, you set a kid up for future success.”

Inspiring others

Phan continues to set kids up for success through his involvement with The Rumie Initiative. This Ontario nonprofit is providing tablets loaded with educational content to children in impoverished communities. He’s mainly involved behind the scenes, assisting with development strategies, reviewing legal documents and ensuring regulatory requirements are met, but it’s a vital contribution, making it possible for The Rumie Initiative to fulfill its mandate. To date, it has partnered with on-the-ground organizations to distribute tablets in Cat Lake, Ontario, Haiti and Liberia, which allowed students there to continue their studies when schools were closed due to the recent Ebola outbreak.

“The idea is that this is a tool that will supplement the great work that teachers already do, and it allows students to access educational material that they wouldn’t otherwise have. Hopefully, it inspires them to learn.”