Partnering with Youth to Reimagine Services and Systems
California Children’s Trust (CCT) and California Coalition for Youth (CCY) have partnered with youth leaders to create the Youth Advocates Program, empowering young people to build advocacy skills and influence the systems that impact their lives. Through public hearings, youth focus groups, and more, this program acknowledges the expertise of youth by compensating them for their advocacy work and amplifying their voices for systemic change.
Partnering with Youth to Reimagine Services and Systems
California Children’s Trust (CCT), ending December 2024, and California Coalition for Youth (CCY) has partnered with youth leaders to create a Youth Advocates program to:
- Support youth in building their advocacy skills.
- Offer youth opportunities to change and influence the systems that impact them.
- Acknowledge the wisdom and experience young people bring to complex issues by compensating them for their advocacy.
Our systems are failing youth. In 2020, CCY surveyed its youth members and found that even before the pandemic, over 50% of respondents were sheltering in a car, 78% needed help finding a job, and all reported needing support, with most citing need for employment, food, health care, and housing. Adding to that, 1 in 3 adolescents in California report symptoms that meet the criteria for serious psychological distress, but only 5% of low-income teenagers on Medicaid in California received screenings for depression and a follow-up plan. And Black, Indigenous, and youth of color in California experienced more depressive-like symptoms than their white peers.
We are taking our lead from young people to create solutions for a more responsive, just, and equitable system of support.
Youth Advocacy Opportunities
Youth Advocacy Fellowship (YAF)
The YAF offers youth an opportunity to take action, learn, and continue to grow in their advocacy skills, There are already over 300 fellows drawing on their lived experience to explain how and why current youth-serving systems need to change. Advocacy opportunities include:
- Public Hearings
- Commission and Workgroup Meetings
- Youth Focus Groups and Listening Sessions
- Written Testimony and Surveys
If you are a youth interested in learning more, or a partner agency wanting to refer a youth for a Youth Advocacy Fellowship opportunity, please contact us at youth@calyouth.org
Youth Advocacy Board
Established in early 2020, the YAB is comprised of youth across California who provide their voice to issues impacting their peers from lack of services, mental health supports, homelessness, and more. Board members serve a one-year term.
Our Youth Advocates in Action
Youth Advocacy Fellow Submits Letter of Support on AB 586 for Increased School Mental Health Services
“I believe there are two critical things that students need to feel more in control of their own mental health and wellness. First, teachers and students themselves need to have the training and support to really listen to each other and build trusting relationships–in the classroom and embedded in the culture of the school. When we feel secure with our relationships, it lifts the stigma of mental health, and we are in it together. Second, we need programs that educate everyone about mental health and social-emotional wellness. It is something that permeates our levies, and students want to be seen as full people, not just people who are stressed about grades. These types of comprehensive and relationship-building supports take time and investment–they take the commitment that I’m seeing from AB 586.”
– Isabel, excerpt from letter of support for AB 586
Youth Advocacy Fellow Joins CCT for Public Testimony, Assembly Health Hearing on the DHCS Telehealth Proposal
Following on CCT’s recently released report, NO GOING BACK: Providing Telemental Health Services to California Children and Youth After the Pandemic, CCT youth advocates shared their lived experience to amplify key recommendations and advocate for the inclusion of phone and text messaging for all Medi-Cal providers in DHCS’s Telehealth proposal.
“If I’m struggling on any particular day with my issues, I reach out to my therapist first via text because I know she’ll get back to me as soon as she can. She will text with me and stay on the thread as long as I need to get stable and go on with my day.”
– G, Oakland, 20 years old; Full Testimony.
Youth Advocacy Board member engages in Historic Medi-Cal Managed Care Re-Procurement Process
Levi Deatherage, board member of California Coalition for Youth and CCT Fellow, responded to the DHCS Request for Information back in October 2020, urging the state to involve youth in the process and stating:
“Mandating inclusion of the youth perspective and voice in MCP contracts, especially to inform MCP partnerships with community-based organizations and schools, is a critical first step.” Full response.