Every November, a small team of youth and adult partners delivers remarkable programming for 200 youth from all over the country at the National League of Cities’ (NLC) annual City Summit conference.
The 200 youth are some of the most civically engaged young people in their communities. They serve on youth councils or mayor’s youth advisory boards, they advocate for local change, and they’re part of national youth-led movements. In short, they are models of active citizens.
Youth councils shared their accomplishments for the year and learned from each other.
A team of about a dozen extraordinary young leaders from this already extraordinary group of youth work year-round to create, plan, and lead the conference content for their peers. They accomplish a full agenda of interactive workshops through a youth-adult partnership with staff at NLC.
The youth in this partnership create the topics for workshops, develop the activities, select speakers, and lead the workshops. Adult partners make sure youth leaders have everything they need to be successful, including supplies and organizational or historical knowledge. The adult partners also use guiding questions to help youth leaders work through sticky spots.
Graffiti Walls
Youth used graffiti walls to express what they love about their cities and what they would change.
Workshops in this year’s Youth Delegate Program at NLC’s City Summit conference included skills training on advocacy through the arts and issue workshops on teen dating violence, climate change, gun violence, and pay equity.
Youth also learned how very diverse groups each have a vested interest in everyday municipal issues and how to advocate for their side of the issue to the community.
Convincing someone of something you don’t personally believe is challenging. Youth stepped into randomly-assigned roles on various sides of an everyday local issue.
In my former role as NLC staff, I had the honor of being the adult partner for this awesome team. I always learn so much from the youth at the conference and on the youth leadership team and have been honored to be part of the team for over five years. At this year’s November conference, I supported new NLC staff to step into the partnership. I am excited to see how the youth voice opportunities at NLC continue to grow under their leadership.