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North Texas Youth Connection is accepting applications from high school students in Grayson, Fannin and Cooke counties for Youth Leadership Forum 2008.
“Youth often feel that they have no say, or cannot have an impact over things happening in their life, in their school, in their community,” said Bettye Finnell, Executive Director of North Texas Youth Connection. “The Youth Leadership Forum offers training to teach the youth leaders of today – who will be our community’s leaders tomorrow – how to be effective at making changes.”
During this free program, students selected to participate will attend the training session on December 4 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Grayson County College’s Center for Workplace Learning. They will be split into teams and learn subjects ranging from the voter registration process, team-buildling and motivation, legislative issues and how bills work their way through the legislature.
“We will have information on different bills scheduled to come before the legislature,” said Nicole West, Prevention Specialist. “Each group will have help from adult facilitators to discuss the issues and investigate topics of interest to the youth in the group. They will then select the one issue where they want to focus their efforts.”
Forum members will meet for two more work sessions on Saturdays in December and January, preparing for their trip to Austin on February 4. Youth will travel on a chartered bus, leaving at 3:30 a.m. Meetings with representatives at the capitol are scheduled throughout the day, after which the bus will return the students to the NTYC office around 11:00 p.m. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are provided to the youth for the trip to Austin. Breakfast and lunch will also be provided at the training forum in November.
Past visits with legislators have been so successful that language NTYC Youth Leadership Forum members have suggested have been included in final versions of bills that became law. These include parts of the “Minute of Silence” bill for public schools, teen driver regulations, and legislation to curtail skyrocketing higher education costs at public colleges and universities in Texas.
Applications require a letter from a teacher, counselor or other adult, in addition to a signature from the school principal and must be returned to the NTYC office before Friday, November 21. Applications are available on the agency’s website at www.ntxyouthconnection.org, from most high school counselors, or by contacting the office at (903) 893-4717.
North Texas Youth Connection, formerly Juvenile Alternatives, is a private 501(c)3 nonprofit, founded in 1979 to address the needs of runaway and homeless youth. Services offered have expanded and modified to keep up with the ever-changing needs of youth and their families. Through free crisis intervention counseling services for youth, short-term emergency youth shelter and outreach programs, North Texas Youth Connection helps youth and families get through crisis situations, learn new skills and build on their strengths in order to be a strong, healthy family.