Perhaps The Who put it best in the chorus of one of their signature rock anthems: \u201cThe kids are alright.\u201d Exhibit A: The Philadelphia City Government Youth Summit, held at City Hall on Wednesday, which showcased potential next-generation public servants eager to gain firsthand experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The one-day, immersive civic leadership experience focused on developing tomorrow’s public leaders. High school students involved in the program had the opportunity to assume the role of a lawmaker, administrator, stakeholder or member of the press and take part in a mock session within City Hall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jada Fagan, the student-elected mayor of the day, is a recent graduate of Cristo Rey Philadelphia High School who is headed to Rutgers University next year and plans to attend law school.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a little nerve-wracking,\u201d Fagan admitted to her first-ever gaggle of reporters Wednesday. \u201c(I\u2019ve learned) to be less of a complainer and more of a problem-solver \u2026 the team has been pretty easy with articulating what they want to see from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the many students-turned-lawmakers working alongside Fagan was Ja\u2019Kiyah Wright, who was chosen to represent the 2nd councilmanic district, which covers much of South Philadelphia and Center City.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of those spaces where a lot of people look at me for an answer for things, which has been a little difficult and a little positive,\u201d Wright, a commercial and advertising student at Universal Audenried Charter High School, told reporters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Between role orientations, individual branch breakout sessions, and negotiation meetings, students heard from Mayor Cherelle Parker and members of City Council, all of whom took questions from participants.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is extremely essential for the City of Philadelphia right now \u2013 we need to ensure that our young people \u2026 understand that, whether or they like it or not, government touches your life from birth to death,\u201d Parker said Wednesday. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter whether or not you think it\u2019s something that\u2019s engaging \u2013 (government) is one of the most influential tools available to ensure the democratic principles that we all hold dear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Surrounded by portraits of past mayors in City Hall\u2019s second-floor reception room, Parker stressed the importance of mentorship and feeling like you belong at the table regardless of your background.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis exposure here today is essential, because we want this to be your norm \u2013 we want this to be your standard,\u201d Parker added.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Students peppered Parker and Councilmembers with questions about their motivations, responsibilities and more \u2013 and made sure to ask for words of advice from the elected officials too.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t run for office to be a footnote in somebody else\u2019s history book,\u201d Parker said. \u201cThe fact that I am the first woman to sit at the table makes me feel an extra sense of pressure about needing to deliver on promises.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council President Kenyatta Johnson and Councilmembers Quetcy Lozada, Nina Ahmad and Anthony Phillips also offered their takes on community engagement and youth empowerment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe work that we do day in and day out allows us to engage with the wider public and listen to what the issues are in terms of how we shape policy and the most important things that we need to address,\u201d Johnson told the students.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Classroom to caucus<\/p>\n
The day of activities included parallel and cross-branch simulations, giving students assigned to a given group \u2013 whether that be the mayor\u2019s cabinet, City Council, city stakeholders or the press corps \u2013 a chance to organize before coming together as a whole to tackle the question of the day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The central question: How should Philadelphia balance short-term World Cup preparations with long-term investments, while ensuring that commitments to equity and human rights are implemented?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The activities encouraged participants to collaborate on how the city could take advantage of its World Cup opportunities \u2013 from tourism and temporary jobs to new investments and business development \u2013 while not forgetting about community concerns \u2013 affordability, housing, trash and illegal dumping, public transportation and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With a hypothetical budget of $60 million, the student leaders had to decide how to invest in tourism areas and youth programs, as well as other key issues such as housing, sanitation, and transit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Fagan, who rides public transit every day, SEPTA funding was a clear-cut focus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur main priority is just prioritizing the budget, making sure the culture is there and we\u2019re representing (the people) fairly well,\u201d Fagan said. \u201cTransportation is a big issue \u2026 That\u2019s really the main focus right now, and just communicating and being transparent with the public.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania programming<\/p>\n
The nearly 100 students who participated on Wednesday are involved in the Greater Philadelphia YMCA\u2019s Youth Civic Engagement program. Students have previously had the opportunity to do similar exercises at the state legislature in Harrisburg, but Wednesday\u2019s events inside Philadelphia City Hall are a first.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been a long history of Y\u2019s supporting youth civic engagement, and we have this organization where people have made some donations, and there\u2019s a bit of a legacy fund that helps fund a state program,\u201d Shaun Elliott, president and CEO of the Greater Philadelphia YMCA, told City & State. \u201cThis is our first shot at it (in Philadelphia) and I think it\u2019s been really successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the closing program, the student City Council debated how to move forward with the $60 million exercise, hearing testimony and recommendations from the individual stakeholder students before proposing and voting on their own legislation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lindsay Boyle, the Y\u2019s director of civic engagement, explained that the members of the event\u2019s leadership team were either elected by their fellow students or chosen by staff members, in part because of their experience in the youth civic engagement program. The remaining students were placed into roles in the cabinet, legislative staff, press or community advocates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most important thing is that their voice matters and that they belong in these spaces,\u201d Boyle told City & State. \u201cIt\u2019s really incredible to see them in these different spaces, have them interact with the mayor and City Council members, and have those elected officials reinforce the idea that their thoughts and their other ideas and beliefs really matter.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s two things we want to do: teach kids about civic government and how it works, but also help them develop their own competencies, their own leadership,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cThis is a great intersection of the two.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kailey Reinboth, a recent graduate of Boyertown Area Senior High School who will be studying communications and political science at Gettysburg College next year, said the experiences have made her a \u201cmore conscious citizen,\u201d better able to understand civic responsibilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, we, the people, hold the power to make these decisions and make these changes in our communities, but we only have that power if we use it,\u201d Reinboth, who serves as a NextGen Program Ambassador for the Greater Philadelphia YMCA, told reporters. \u201cThe youth aren\u2019t the future; they are the present. We really need to enforce that \u2013 making sure that we\u2019re not making change in the future \u2013 we are making change now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Perhaps The Who put it best in the chorus of one of their signature rock anthems: \u201cThe kids…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96537,227,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-221678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-civics-education","tag-education","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221678","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=221678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}