Yolo youth plan and carry out successful youth leadership conference

by Lori Perez,
YCYLC Planning Team member, Woodland Coalition for Youth

On March 29 and 30, 77 youth and adults participated in the first Yolo County Youth Leadership Conference, held at Woodland Community College. The event was organized by the Woodland Coalition for Youth and was designed to inspire, motivate and give students practical knowledge about leadership development, attaining higher education and making career choices.

The leadership conference concept began when some local youth and adults attended a large youth leadership conference in Sacramento. The youth attending wondered why a leadership conference had never been held in Woodland, and the adults attending responded by saying that one had never been planned. The youth decided they would like to plan one.

Youth were involved in the entire planning stages of the conference, beginning with the desire to have a leadership conference. Youth decided what workshops the conference would have, what the schedule would look like, what fun activities to incorporate and even what our food would be. The youth involved in planning and facilitating the conference included high school student Angelica Saldana and middle school students Elizabeth Hechtman, Angel Barba and Sarah Brown. Angelica felt the conference was a huge success and that many youth from different backgrounds learned how to work together. During the conference, youth were involved by being co-facilitators of workshops, co-emcees of the conference and co-leaders of family groups.

The youth and adults on the planning team learned how to exercise their own leadership skills and how to build from each others’ strengths. Some of what the youth attending the conference learned was how to lead meetings, prepare for job interviews, how leadership is involved in martial arts and how leadership is exercised in making good choices. Many of the youth stated that the conference helped them build confidence, and helped them realize the importance of building strong and healthy relationships with their peers and adults.

As a planning team we feel the conference could not have been possible without the relationships and partnerships built between each adult and youth. Adults on the team included Debbie Carrion from Club Live, Edgar Lampkin and Lori Perez from Yolo County Office of Education, Esther Guardado from the Woodland Public Library, Douglass Middle School teacher Ernesto Canales and Rogelio Villagrana from the Woodland Coalition for Youth. Our planning team is also very thankful to our sponsors, who have graciously donated their time and money to help make this event possible. We hope to hold our 2nd Annual Yolo County Youth Leadership Conference next year!

The Woodland Coalition for Youth is a REACH Community Action coalition. Learn about all seven Community Action coalitions on the REACH Web site. Visit the Woodland Coalition for Youth Web site.