NPA Youth take Washington , DC and Capitol Hill By Storm at annual Youth Leadership Summit

While National People�s Action�s youth continue to spearhead a national youth organizing movement throughout the year, they have used an annual Youth Leadership Summit as the launching pad for building national campaigns.

This year�s Youth Leadership Summit took a turn in several new directions, as close to 50 NPA youth sought to build their reputation as a national force by descending on the offices of legislators and policy experts in Washington , DC for three days in mid-August.

Four years ago the Summit began as an opportunity for training, strategy and reflection on local campaigns. As the Summit became an annual event, it resulted in the idea for the youths� first national campaign, the Youth Service Scholarship Act.

This year, the youth combined an already rigorous schedule, featuring three trainings on øEducating Lawmakers,Ó øPower,Ó and øDramatizing an Issue,Ó and several national strategy sessions, with over 20 meetings with key players in the world of policy, service and leadership.

  In one day, NPA youth met with close to 20 Congressional offices in order to build support and seek advice on moving the Youth Service Scholarship Act, which rewards youth who perform service in low-income communities. Youth met with both in-state district representatives as well as leading members of the education committees in both the House and Senate, several of whom expressed support for the youth-led bill. Others promised to follow-up and work for a firm commitment in support of the initiative.

Earlier in the day, youth educated national youth policy experts on their local work and on the need for service-based scholarships. The youth agenda included meetings with the National Education Association (NEA), which pledged to lobby on behalf of the Scholarship Bill, the Advancement Project, the Corporation for National Service (CNS) who agreed to follow-up with youth about possible non-legislative sources for scholarships for youth in service, as well as meeting with other youth involved with the Youth Education Alliance, a D.C.-based youth organizing group that focuses on education reform issues.
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øI have been to almost every one of these events and I walked into this year�s Summit thinking our agenda was too packed and there was going to be no way to get all of this accomplished,:" said Melissa Yennie, a youth leader with the South End Knight Riders, in Hartford , ConnBut we got right to work and we got the job done.Ó

Another highlight of the event included a national strategy session on youth organizing, where NPA youth talked about strategies for building on local successes and taking those issues national. In addition to developing more local angles on the scholarship, youth discussed ideas for elevating issues such as school-based juvenile courts and youth summer jobs to a national level.

øI thought it was pretty cool," said Tijuana Hardwell, of Hope Street Youth Development in Wichita , Kans. ",Most important, I liked that we all networked and got together as youth. We can never get too many opportunities to meet and build on what we do.Ó

The three-day Summit ended with a two-hour session where NPA youth participated in a discussion with program officers from the Hazen Foundation on youths� developmental needs and experiences in organizing as well as what foundations can do to support the development of youth organizing.

The Summit was an overall success according to Susan Tovar, of Youth, Equality and Power, in Cicero , IL .

øI never dreamed I�d be a part of anything like this,"she said." The lobbying was good and I really feel like we took action!Ó