A Guide for Creating a City Youth Council: How-To
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[Download this how-to section.]
What is a youth council?
Why create a youth council?
Who benefits?
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I. What is a youth council?
A youth council is an advisory body composed of local youth (usually high-school
aged). They provide advice and counsel to the local governing body and its affiliated advisory and regulatory boards, as well as other community organizations. Additionally, youth councils can implement and participate in a variety of youth-identified community initiatives.
II. Why create a youth council?
According to the Census Bureau, 24.6 percent of the U.S. population is under the age of 18. It goes without saying that young people are the future of our communities. Therefore, it is vitally important that they are vested with the knowledge, skills and abilities to be the next generation of local leaders. Youth councils are an excellent means of doing so because they promote regular and active civic engagement among youth.
Youth councils promote civic engagement among youth by:
Giving them a formal role in local decision making
Offering real-world experiences with elected and advisory bodies
Teaching them about the role of councils, boards and commissions
Providing them with an opportunity to develop leadership skills and learn how local government operates
Increasing voice and communication between youth and adults, and among youth themselves
Increasing youth volunteerism
Enhancing classroom civic education
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III. Who benefifits?
Youth councils enable young people to:
Communicate their concerns regarding local matters that affect them
Directly participate in local government
Make decisions and take action to potentially improve their community
Youth councils enable local councils/commissioners to:
Be more representative of the community as a whole
Gain insight regarding the community’s “young,” dynamic and/or progressive perspective
Encourage youths to be more actively engaged in the political process
Improve services that directly affect young people
Be more sustainable
Pages 4-10 (the "how-to" sections) of the guide are reprinted with permission from the North Carolina Civic Education Consortium. Some slight modifications have been made for League members. Special thanks to the consortium for providing a template for this document. For more information on the consortium and its other resources, please visit http://www.sog.unc.edu/programs/civiced/index.php.
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