In August 2008, Wellington Vice Mayor Carmine Priore was sworn in as president of the Florida League of Cities. In his first speech as president, he spoke about how students are receiving little or no civic education instruction in the classroom and cited surveys and studies showing that a large percentage of high school students know little about their governments. He made it his presidential priority to promote civic education and encouraged cities to create youth councils to educate this younger generation.
While many of Florida’s cities already have youth councils, we wanted to create a document that would serve as a “road map” for others wanting to start similar programs. These special citywide councils are composed of students from different high schools within the city and serve as an advisory board to the city commission/council. These students are the leaders of tomorrow and it is important to expose them to municipal government at an early age. We hope that your city will consider forming a youth council.
The Florida League of Cities would like to thank the North Carolina Civic Education Consortium for providing a template for this document. Additionally, the League would like to thank the following Florida governments for providing information on their youth councils: Dade City, West Palm Beach and Destin; and also Greene County, N.C.
For more information, contact Casey Cook at (850) 701-3609.
| Youth Council How-To: What, Why, Who? | Youth Council How-To: Is Your City Ready? |
| Youth Council How-To: Now What? | Appendices | Downloads |
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