{"id":221648,"date":"2026-06-17T20:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T20:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/221648\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T20:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T20:45:07","slug":"philadelphia-city-hall-hosts-ymca-youth-civic-engagement-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/221648\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia City Hall hosts YMCA youth civic engagement event"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Delco to Chesco and Montco to Bucks, what about life in Philly\u2019s suburbs do you want WHYY News to cover? <a href=\"#Section1\">Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>More than 60 Philadelphia high school students simulated city government on Wednesday to brainstorm solutions to urgent issues in the city.\n<\/p>\n<p>The Philadelphia City Government Youth Summit, hosted by the Greater Philadelphia YMCA in partnership with the mayor\u2019s office and City Council, provided students with the opportunity to learn about how policy is created and take on executive, legislative, press and community stakeholder roles.\n<\/p>\n<p>Through a series of sessions, students proposed answers to the question of how Philadelphia can balance short-term World Cup preparations with long-term investments for residents while implementing commitments to equity and human rights.\n  <\/p>\n<p>Mayor Cherelle Parker told the students Wednesday morning that she was nervous the first time she had to speak at a City Council meeting as a young person.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis exposure here today is essential because we want this to be your norm, we want this to be your standard,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n<p>Parker urged the students to be \u201carchitects of solutions.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday, you\u2019re going to get an opportunity to learn something important, that it\u2019s easy to point out a problem, and you should have the ability and the wherewithal to communicate what you\u2019re thinking and you\u2019re feeling,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it\u2019s much more complex when you try to solve a problem.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>Finding solutions<\/p>\n<p>Jada Fagan, 18, served in Parker\u2019s role, acting as mayor for the day. Fagan, a recent Cristo Rey Philadelphia High School graduate who will attend Rutgers University in the fall, said she learned that the mayor \u201chas a lot on her hands.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>She said stepping into the role for the day to facilitate communication on the issue of World Cup preparations was \u201ca little nerve-wracking.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTransportation is a big issue regarding traffic,\u201d Fagan said. \u201cSEPTA fees, are they going to remain the same for the locals? Is it fair to oppose SEPTA taxes on tourists? So that\u2019s really our main focuses right now, and just communicating, being transparent with the public about the next coming event.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>She said the experience taught her to be \u201cless of a complainer and be more of a problem solver.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s harder to find solutions than complain all day,\u201d she said.\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Delco to Chesco and Montco to Bucks, what about life in Philly\u2019s suburbs do you want WHYY&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,1384,61434],"class_list":["post-221648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philly-suburbs","tag-youth-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}