A new city program aims to put youth front and center in creating new laws and policies.
The city is creating an advisory task force of 20 city youth which would have access to city politicians and department heads. The goal is to allow their input to be directly involved in the decision-making process of creating new policy.
The initiative is part of a nationwide program through the National Civic League. Rochester was one of three cities selected to participate in a pilot, alongside Omaha, Nebraska, and Dallas, Texas.
Lacey Jones, 16, is a member of the city's Youth Voice/One Vision program, which is a similar youth-led initiative meant to serve as an advisory body to the mayor.
“I can say personally, as myself somebody who loves policy and government, I can sit there and have sound conversations with other young members and adults in the same room, and see them click and have ideas, that connect and share,” Jones said. “But it’s never the place for those children to have their intent put in, it’s always just been seen as an adult thing.”
Youth Voice/One Vision was created in the late 1990s by Mayor William Johnson as part of a package of legislation dubbed Renaissance 2010. The body was intended to serve as a form of advisory board for city issues, give young people hands-on experience in city government, and help guide youth to careers in City Hall and policing.
But its scope has been limited.
The direct policy input Youth Voice/One Vision has is largely focused on issues surrounding the city’s R-Centers. The Youth Policy Pilot will not replace Youth Voice/One Vision, which the city's Department of Recreation and Human Services facilitates, but rather expand on the concept.
Tremain Harris, youth leadership coordinator for the city, provided an example of the reach of Youth Voice/One Vision. After a young person was hit by a car near the Avenue D R-Center several years ago, the organization effectively lobbied the city to add temporary speed bumps to the street. Those speed bumps are still in use today.
Harris said the pilot program has a goal of building the reach of what Youth Voice/One Vision currently does.
“This is more city-wide,” Harris said. “So, say they were coming up with a curfew. The taskforce would want to get involved in that and make sure youth voices are involved in it, that’s just an example...We won’t be involved in every single policy, that’s unrealistic, but anything youth related, and that the youth feel that they should be involved in.”
The Rochester Area Community Foundation awarded the city a $50,000 grant to fund the program, which will run for a year after its formation. At that point the city would need to determine the program’s success and, if it decides to continue it, find future funding.
Throughout the trial run, the program will receive guidance from RACF and the National Civic League. The legislation establishing the program will go to vote by the Rochester City Council on Tuesday, August 20.
Isaac Bliss, the city’s manager of youth services, said the most critical step after the program’s approval is ensuring the 20 youth included in the pilot represent as diverse a swath of the city as possible, including, for example, the city’s refugee population.
The city will accept recommendations for young people to serve on the task force and its members will be selected through an interview process.
“I think the goal is to not to treat this as a pilot and it’s going to be here today, gone tomorrow,” Bliss said. “But that this is really going to be something that’s going to be infused into the city of Rochester’s culture.”
