| March-April 2004 | Issue 199 |
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NPA Youth Unveil National Platform | |||||||||||||||
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NPA youth stood tall and flexed their muscles at this year’s Annual Conference, taking on issues from school reform to the national summer job shortage. Youth were present in nearly every NPA issue including education, immigration, jobs, and crime and safety. Leaders met with Andrew Malloy from the American Parole and Probation Association (APPA) who agreed to form a partnership to fix the ailing student court/peer jury program and further promote it as an effective alternative to destructive out-of-school suspensions. The APPA also agreed to lobby Congress to support the Youth Service Scholarship Act (YSSA), the first bill ever written by youth for youth. The YSSA would provide badly needed scholarship opportunities and further promote community service. The conference was capped by an energetic youth workshop where NPA youth testified on the importance of youth summer jobs and demanded better school discipline systems. The workshop concluded with the unveiling of NPA’s National Youth Platform and leaders promised to “take the fight to the very doorstep of those who would deny us these rights.” “It was very powerful to see youth from across the country come together and make progress on the common issues we are all fighting back home,” said NPA youth workshop chairperson, Ti’Juana Hardwell of Hope Street Youth Development in Wichita, Kans. “From Wichita to Chicago, from Ohio to North Carolina, our local communities will definitely feel the shock waves of what happened here. NPA has built a legacy of returning the power to our communities, and by the looks of our youth leaders, that will be continued for a long, long time.” |
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