We speak with students Eugenia Bamfo, Alexandra Rouvinetis, and Mukilan Muthukumar, members of the NYC Youth Agenda. Using citywide student survey data, Youth Agenda teams aggregated young people’s needs to make recommendations to policymakers in five areas — housing security, food justice, mental health support, economic mobility, and leadership and civic engagement. Among the findings: large numbers of students are unaware of existing youth programs, many don’t trust the “trusted adults” in their schools, and Department of Education “student voice” efforts are tremendously understaffed.

Overview 

00:00-01:16 Intros

01:16-03:19 NYC Youth Agenda and its key points

03:19-08:19 Leadership and civic opportunity—issues and recommendations

08:19-12:01 Housing

12:01-13:34 Food insecurity

13:34-14:12 Mutual aid societies

14:12-18:34 Mental health

18:34-19:49 Economic mobility

19:49-21:50 Organizational support from adult groups

21:50-22:49 Policies for schools

22:49-27:28 Policy breakfast and meetings with elected officials and policy makers

27:28-30:15 Funding for proposals

30:15-31:06 Coordination with other youth organizations

31:06-32:07 How listeners can be supportive

32:07- Outro

Transcript

Click here to see the full transcript of this episode. 

Soundtrack by Podington Bear