Youth Services

On January 6 2026, the City Council re-affirmed its support in ensuring youth of this community have a voice at the highest level. It has been a decades long process that concluded after six months of strategic and intentional community engagement. Experts from areas like Governance & Structure, Co-Design, and grassroots Community Engagement were brought together to speak directly to the youth of our community in an effort to ensure that this would be something they wanted.

Following multiple rounds of thoughtful Co-Design sessions, surveys, and conversations with adult allies, a decision was made by those youth voices. Youth not only wanted a governing body that gave them a voice to the highest level, they also wanted an informal option that allowed them to convene in a safe space amongst one another without any interference. It has also been a City Manager directive that we host an annual Job Shadow Day so that youth can learn about Civic structure and how they impact City design.

This work led City Council support the launch of a three year implementation plan for a non-Brown Act led Youth Commission comprised of a young people ages 12-18 that apply and are selected by City staff based off the criteria that City Council has laid out and a nomination process for youth from each youth-serving organization coming together on a quarterly Youth Task Force to discuss topics that matter to them, which are then reported to the Youth Commission and ultimately City Council.

We want to thank yli (Youth Leadership Institute), Creative Hustle, and Swordhouse Inc for their work in help inform and shape this process along with City staff.

The next steps are as follows:

May 2026

Open the nomination process for young people from each youth-serving organization in East Palo Alto to serve on the Youth Task Force
Convene the first Youth Task Force meeting and ask adult allies to support the engagement so that everyone is bought in and aligned with the process moving forward

June 2026

Open the application process for the inaugural class of youth from ages 12-18 to join the inaugural class of the Youth Commission

July 2026

Begin the review and selection process for the inaugural Youth Commission

August 2026

Host a summit for selected youth to come together to talk life goals, understand the commitment, and set their priorities for the upcoming year

September 2026

Host the second Youth Task Force meeting and bring both groups together for a Alignment party to ensure there is parity in the decision making process for youth from East Palo Alto
Present to City Council the Youth Commission workplan for the year based on the previous meetings and discussions

October 2026-June 2027

Implement the Youth Commission work plan and continue quarterly Youth Task Force meetings

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