There are approximately 70 Youth City Councils in Utah and on September 13, Park City will be counted among them. Park City council member NannWorel told KPCW that there’s a lot to be gained from having their own youth council.
“We’ll have a youth city council and mayor that they’re going to elect from within their own group," Worel said. "And they’ll be shadowing us and I think they also have some ideas for service projects as well.”
Worel said she’s not the liaison for the Youth City Council but she’s looking forward to working with them.
“I’m really excited about this," Worel said. "Becca Gerber is the council liaison to that group so within the last week she’s gone to some of the meetings.”
All of the youth councils in Utah gather once a year for a conference in Salt Lake City.
“So it’s an awesome opportunity for us to learn from our youth," Worel said. "You know, what’s important to them and for them to have a chance at doing some governance. “
Worel personally met with the director of the Bright Futures, a program that is a new public-private partnership that is focused on increasing the number of first generation college graduates.
She is hoping to have them collaborate with the youth city council.
“Yeah – I think that there’s great potential for the two to work together," Worel said. "So I connected the coordinator of that program with the faculty person that’s working with the youth city councils just to see how they could collaborate or blend or just work together.”
Park City Advocates is a program that is meant to serve the Hispanic community but is cognizant of the fact that the issues being addressed are not unique to this community alone.
Worel said they met recently and began organizing themselves into committees to be more effective.
“So there is a task force that looks at affordable childcare, that looks at health, that looks at early childhood education, affordable housing, those types of things," Worel said. "And then those task forces kind of set their own goals and then come back together and use that meeting as a reporting time and also to recruit new members.”
She said they’re hoping more Hispanics will get involved.
“There is a lot of potential within that group," Worel said. "The task forces are always looking for new members so I would encourage anyone with interests within those areas to get involved.”
For information about Park City advocates, email Hayley Holland at hayley@uw.org.