More than 170 youth were engaged in producing the report through surveys, visioning sessions and stakeholder meetings. Youth advocates from YJC, California Youth Connection, Anti-Recidivism Coalition, NFYI, Opportunity Youth Collaborative and more worked alongside the Commission for Children and Families to develop recommendations on how the Youth Commission should be designed, what powers it should have and how commissioners should be selected. She called the county’s failure to incorporate the input of young people into policy making “particularly problematic,” given that Los Angeles is home to a huge number of young people and the largest population of foster youth in the country. County, yet not a single one of those requires youth representation,” McGill said in an interview with The Imprint. “There’s more than 200 commissions and committees in L.A. Kim McGill, an organizer with the Youth Justice Coalition (YJC), an advocacy group deeply involved with pushing for the commission’s creation and developing the model, said they’ve been working on it for eight years. “When we acknowledge youth as experts in their own life, we begin to value them as partners in this work,” said youth advocate Carmen Noyola, an alumna of the foster care system.

“Let us be the hammer to be able to break the cycle.” “We know the different cracks we need to fill,” said Jose Canizal, an advocate with the National Foster Youth Institute (NFYI). “In a time when the County is engaged in major efforts to reform the juvenile justice system and aspects of child welfare, it is critical that we have those with lived experience be advocates, champions, and change agents as we all seek to improve the systems that impacted their lives from a very young age,” the motion from Supervisors Janice Hahn and Sheila Kuehl reads.ĭozens of youth advocates addressed the board at the meeting, speaking about the importance of using the input of the young people to drive systems reform. The commission will also produce an annual “youth report card,” scoring how well various departments are serving L.A.’s young people. The commission, which will be open to 18- to 26-year-olds with experience in the child welfare or juvenile justice systems, will monitor the outcomes of youth-serving county departments and will also offer recommendations to the board and departments regarding youth-related policies, programs and have the power to audit county department budgets. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to create the county’s first Youth Commission, answering long-standing calls from youth advocates to give young people a seat at the table shaping policies and programs that impact their lives. Photo courtesy of the office of Janice Hahn Supervisor Janice Hahn and Children’s Commission Co-Chair Tiffany Boyd with youth advocates at a press conference about the new Youth Commission.

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