YouthScape Blogs - Greatest Hits

03.06 - Corina McCarthy-Fadel & Lydia Lu of Cambridge, Massachusetts

Congressional City Conference 2006

Municipal officials from all over the United States attend NLC's Congressional City Conference to meet and discuss issues that affect their communities. The main focus of this year’s conference was to advocate and lobby for the federal funding of the CDBG program, Community Development Block Grant. Cambridge has used these funds to build a Senior Center and for other needs to enhance the quality of life in our city.  Cambridge benefits from this grant program, and our federal government wants to cut it by $1 billion dollars.

The conference also offered the opportunity for us to connect with our local and federal officials. We met up with Mayor Ken Reeves several times during the conference and talked to him about issues that affect Cambridge such as gentrification, how the city no longer has Rent Control and how Cambridge is losing its famous diversity because many families cannot afford to live here due to the housing prices are just too high.  More from Corina and Lydia

03.22.06 - Brittany Bergam of Spokane, Washington

Elected Officials Reception

Being a first year participant in Spokane’s Teen Advisory Council (TAC), I was honored when asked to be in a highly regarded position at our annual Elected Officials Youth Development Reception. This occasion was to meet with various officials, including judges, police chiefs, county commissioners, Spokane’s city council and mayor, and various other mayors and city councilmen from our county to pass on youth related issues and ideas.  More from Brittany

01.30.06 - Kirby Rider of Medford, Oregon                           

Youth Voice Does Matter

At the 2005 Congress of Cities in conference in Charlotte, N.C., from December 6 to 10, I had a chance to meet with and learn from many youth from all across the country.  Through this conference I made a lot of friends and business partners, some youth and some adult attendees. 

Since the Congress of Cities, I have been working on a pressing issue in my community – homeless youth. More from Kirby

01.30.06 - Jonathan Reyes of Reno, Nevada

2005 Congress of Cities Conference           

As a member of the Youth City Council that attended the 2005 National League of Cities in Charlotte, N.C., I would like to inform you of my enlightening experience. First of all, the accommodations and the friendly attitude from the staff at the hotel were extremely impressive. I was stunned by how much pride citizens had in the city of Charlotte. Highlighting their nickname as "Queen City," buildings, street signs, and sidewalks were laden with crowns. More from Jonathan

11.22.05 - Jordan Clark of Spokane, Washington

Youth at the America's Promise 100 Best Communities for Young People Celebration

America’s Promise recently named the 100 Best Communities for Young People.  On November 2nd, the 100 communities gathered in Washington, DC to celebrate their accomplishments and network with other communities.  Jordan Clark, a senior high student in Spokane, Washington was part of that city’s team that attended the Washington DC celebration event.

I expected the conference to be just a bunch of speakers all congratulating us on our achievements, which to some extent it was, but it was also much more than that. I gained so much information from our speaker Dr. Susan Morse and enjoyed how she engaged her audience and gave youth and other audience members the chance to speak. More from Jordan

 
11.22.05 - Cashida Okeke of Rock Hill, South Carolina

Why I’m Involved in My City

Youth should be encouraged to give back to their communities and they should realize that there are many ways to do this. Even the smallest contributions through school-affiliated programs can be a way youth can serve their community.

Communities thrive when they incorporate the ideas of adults and youth alike. When a bond can be formed between these two generations, there is no limit to the possibilities that can be created for the city. Youth are an important asset to every community.They hold the future of their communities within their ideas.

Having the opportunity to express and share these ideas through youth forums and youth commissions is a step in building healthy communities. Every city should invest in a youth council as a supplement to the city's working Council. Only great things can result in the utilizing youth ideas!

03.06 - Corina and Lydia (CCC 06)

Another issue was that the universities have taken over our city by expanding their campuses. As a result, this creates less affordable housing whereby pushing out many of the long-time residents who are of the working class that built our city. The high cost of housing is causing drastic changes in the economic, racial and educational makeup of Cambridge.

Our school system that once served over ten thousand pupils is now serving less than six thousand, it’s suffering. The suffering is due to middle class families moving out -- a white flight from our public school system -- resulting in our schools to be left with a high percentage of economically deprived children from public housing and the very rich who can afford the million dollar price tag homes in Cambridge today. Our city is losing the diversity that makes it such a great place to live.

Mayor Reeves shared his concerns about our high school, students’ MCAS scores, and Youth Centers in Cambridge. We were able to have a special meeting with our Mayor where we all discussed the Caribbean Carnival, the Latino Concert, and the Central Square World’s Fair celebrating unity and diversity in the face of a changing Central Square, from many uniquely oriented shops to chain stores. It was a great chance to get to know our local leader, what he was about and how he is improving our city right now.

In addition to meeting Mayor Reeves, the NLC conference provided us the exposure to many other political figures on both the local and federal levels: Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, U.S. Senator Barack Obama, Cambridge City Councilors Marjorie Decker and Henrietta Davis, U.S. Congressman Michael Capuano, First Lady Laura Bush, and many more.

Our favorite part of the conference was hearing a speech by U.S. Senator Barack Obama for Illinois, a very unique politician. He was introduced by Howard Dean who emphasized the need to elect more members to our Congress that represent the changing landscape of faces in our country. Senator Obama is half Kenyan and half white; his father was a Kenyan Tribal Chief, and his mother was a white woman from Kansas. He grew up in Hawaii, went to Harvard Law School, and was a community organizer and civil rights attorney before becoming a U.S. Senator in 2005. 

Senator Obama told a story about his U.S. Senate campaign in the town of Cairo in southern Illinois, a town famous during the 60’s and 70’s as having one of the worst racial tensions in our country. To his relief and joy as he pulled into the town, there were 300 people wearing “Obama for Senate” pins, about one fourth of them were black and the rest white. They were all there together to support Obama’s election. Obama talked about how if he had told these people 40 years ago that they would be together campaigning for the election of a black Senator, they would have thought he was crazy. Yet on that day, they were all united to support Obama. This speech was a good example of change, and it motivated and inspired all of us who listened. We can make the change that we want to see; in fact we are that change that we want to see. It was a great speech of hope!

We met with youth and adults from across the country to discuss different issues that affected our individual communities. This year’s NLC conference had the highest attendance by youth participants ever with 120 attendees from all over the United States. We met youth from Reno, Nevada, Hot Springs, Arkansas and Loveland, Colorado just to name a few.

We discussed issues and exchanged ideas about finding things for youth to do, making recreational places and promoting youth civic involvement in our communities. It was a good eye opener to see what was going on across the nation for youth. We also talked about issues that affected us all. We spoke about the advantages and disadvantages of being a college town, such as universities providing new opportunities for local high school students, as well as their effect on the gentrification of our neighborhoods and how that is changing our city. It was a great experience to be able to connect with people from all over the nation.

At the Congressional City Conference, we were able to experience politics first hand and network with people from across the country. The conference enabled us to look beyond our community and see how decisions are made nationally, yet it was also a chance for us to get to know our community leaders and talk about the issues in Cambridge. The conference has helped us learn about how to improve Cambridge, and the important role we play as youth in our city, and as members of the Youth Involvement Subcommittee. We must continue to talk to our fellow students and youth and work towards our goals such as lowering the voting age.  We also must engage our younger people and nurture them to be our city’s future leadership, so the Kids’ Council can continue and grow and build a strong fiber for Cambridge community involvement. We would like to thank the City of Cambridge, The Kids’ Council, and Mayor Ken Reeves for the wonderful opportunity to be participants of the conference in Washington, D.C. back to top

I had sat in on the meetings prior to this event, working out the logistics and arranging dates, times, speeches, and invitations to bring this important occasion together. Being able to finally sit in the room, where our ideas and officials were brought together was a motivating, yet overwhelming feeling. However, I learned a lot about the views of our leaders and how easily a connection and communication line can be formed within a couple hours of chatting.

We began our reception with various speeches given by TAC members and our facilitators. We introduced our officials to the National League of Cities Platform and described our desire to conjoin with this group to develop more youth policies in the future. We also introduced America’s Promise and Spokane’s recognition as one of the top 100 best communities for teens.

To engage the officials, we were all assigned tables to sit at; there were about four officials to every three Teen Advisory members. This way, each table was able to individually get to know and converse with each other on a more personal basis. Throughout our conversations, a person took notes on key points and opinions that were addressed, so we could share them with the rest of the groups.

This process worked out well, and I believe our points of concern and our ideas for youth in the future were made clear in a relaxed, yet professional manner. Spokane’s Teen Advisory board now has a communication open between their youth and the adult leaders in their community around them.

The personal satisfaction I received in the leadership role has encouraged me to be more open with adults in my views of improving youth, and I am hoping to become better at relaying my information during more seminars like this. Next year I hope this event is bigger and even more inspirational to our leaders to make a difference in their committed youth. We all have something to say, and there is always something to be done, and with the cooperation of everyone we can all improve the future of our youth.  back to top

01.30.06 - Kirby (Youth Voice Does Matter)

I enjoyed attending the youth delegates session at the Congress of Cities, so that I could hear the opinions of other youth, not just adults.  I especially like to hear the opinions of youth because it is not cluttered with questions like where is the funding, or statements like “that isn’t possible”. Youth have the mindset that anything is possible and that is what makes us great.

For those of you that are involved with a Youth council or commission back home I am encouraging you to go forward and talk to you city council and other city members about youth issues and what you would like to see happen in your city and community.  For those of you in cities that don’t have a youth council, get one established in your community. A youth council is the best thing that a city can have. Cities need to hear more youth opinions off all types on all issues, especially those that concern us.

This is my call to action for our generation. Get up and speak for yourselves. The one thing that we can not do is let someone else make decisions for us. We need to act on our opinions and let others know what we want. I am going to leave you on a quote that was spoken at the “Bridging the Generation Gap Breakfast” at the 2004 Congress of Cities in Indianapolis. “[City leaders] listen up to our voice, we are the generation of tomorrow.  We are the generation that will follow in your footsteps, you need to listen to us and we will listen to you.”  back to top

The Conference was full of experienced, influential keynote speakers. These speakers told of the change that they had tried to make in the world. They believed in a cause and instilled a sense of initiative in each and every person within the audience. I enjoyed meeting the youngest mayor, Michael Sessions, and hearing what he had to say about his community. It was an enlightening encounter that demonstrated proof that youth can make a difference.

 
I attended a workshop entitled, "Media Production and Distribution," which focused on public website development and the benefits of multilingual municipal websites. As a result of this workshop, I was inspired to propose a low-cost solution to solicit public comments in Reno. My proposed website would allow users to log on and submit their opinions on relevant issues in our community.
 
The 2006 Congress of Cities will be held in my hometown, Reno Nev., from December 6-9, 2006.  As a member of Reno’s Youth City Council, I will play a role in planning the conference, which I hope many of you will consider attending. For the 2006 CoC, I hope to see more youth-oriented activities. The 2005 Conference provided many valuable opportunities to interact with other youth across the nation, which is essential and an excellent way to gain new ideas to improve out communities. For the 2006 CoC, I would like to see, in addition to the networking opportunities, more youth activities that occur outside of the conference setting, such as ice skating, museum tours, river walks, bowling, and dinner parties at key locations within Reno. We should also invite keynote speakers that address broad, universal issues. This keynote speaker should be able to address a problem that any Youth City Council can change within their community.
 
Overall, CoC 2005 was an enlightening experience that I’ll remember forever. I believe our attendance will benefit the city of Reno, as we learned innovative ideas that we are planning to implement within our own community. We know that youth have power and that we should use that power to make change. Change starts with those who are willing to take initiative, and we feel that we have the initiative to make change. back to top

11.22.05 - Jordan (America's Promise Celebration)

The breakout sessions were great as well, I attended the Policy change and Effective Education sessions, where I gained a lot of new ideas and how to build on our current programs in Spokane. However, the one of the most enjoyable parts of the Conference was the lunch, not just the food, but being able to sit at a table with all the other youth and get to know one another. I was pleased to hear how everyone at my table was involved in their communities.  It was very reassuring to hear that I was not the only one who cared about his communities.  My peers cared just as much as I did.

Another exciting and fun part of the trip was the American Street Festival.  I really enjoyed the marching band, but my favorite part of that evening was getting to meet and take pictures with Colin Powell, one of my heroes and a man I look up to and admire.  His wife, Alma Powell, Chair of the America’s Promise Board, was also extremely nice.  She repeatedly said she cared about young people and showed it in her actions.

I was disappointed at how few youth attended the conference. I was hoping that there would be more young people there, and I was shocked to find that of 400 participants, only 40 were youth.  I hope that in the future more cities bring young people.  After all, the conference was about celebrating communities and the young people in them.
 
The most important thing that I took away was the friendships that I made with other youth from around the country. In those short 10 hours of getting to know each other, I gained friendships that I know will last a lifetime.  One of the reasons I love to attend conferences with other youth is to meet other young people who are educated and concerned about their communities.

At the America’s Promise conference, all the youth I met were active in their communities.  I enjoyed being able to sit down with my peers and have an intelligent conversation. Since they are already informed about the issues I care about, we didn’t have to educate on another on issues before discussing them.  They already had their own opinions.  Hearing alternate viewpoints was very educational for me and gave me a different perspective.

I learned so much from my peers by going to this conference.  I was excited to go home and start making changes. I have to give a shout out to Dan Shorts from Buck County, Pennsylvania and Claire Choi from Anchorage, Alaska it was fun getting to know you guys and I miss you guys, but I know that we will see each other again. To all the other youth that I had the pleasure of meeting -- thank you for reminding me that there are other young people out there that care about their communities and thank you for helping to show the adults around our nation that young people care.
 
I hope America’s Promise will do a follow up celebration for cities to update on another on their progress.  I also think that maybe there should be more all youth conferences so that young people can meet together and discuss youth-specific issues.  back to top