By Jacoby Soter

The What and the Who of YAC

The YAC is UP for Learning’s Youth Action Council, a diverse group of youth from around the country, who meet monthly to  design and implement change in UP’s work and whose existence supports UP for Learning’s commitment to youth-adult partnerships. As a Youth Program Specialist (YPS), I co- facilitated the YAC meetings, designed agendas, and kept the YAC on target for its yearly goals with my fellow Youth Program Specialists. 

 The YAC became an important part of how we create a community for youth working with UP in different places and in different types of projects. We invited and incorporated as many Youth Interns as possible into the space and built a community of mission-driven individuals, who care to learn about the complex topics we explored, such as race-based and LGBTQ+ education for younger audiences. We were excited with the outcome, because it meant more young people got to engage with the YAC and, by greater measure, UP for Learning’s work. 

Youth Intern Quote >> “Our project was centered around gender expressions and identities, which is hard language to use. We focused deeply on learning both about American culture and other world cultures, which led to our project being authentically accessible and inclusive to folks, regardless of cultural background.”

For me, a highlight of the YAC was seeing the vast array of Youth Interns engaging with the YAC and UP. I enjoyed the amount of fun and joy that we baked into the YAC this year to build connections and simulate that skill for everyone to take back home to their own school projects. A highlight is playing “Gartic Phone,” an online version of the common classroom game telephone. 

Youth Intern Quote >> “Loved when we played gartic phone, and all the silly pictures we made–together”

How is YAC adapting for next year? 

Next year, the YAC is moving towards a mentorship model, where Youth Interns can access mentorship from the Youth Program Specialist team, with other Youth Interns. The YAC will shift into a high-touch mentorship program; YPS mentors will meet with their Youth Intern mentees once a month for a small group session in between the larger gatherings. With more collaboration between Youth Interns and the YPS teams, we hope to  boost the facilitation and inclusive leadership tactics of our Youth Interns, one of the foundational goals of the Youth Internship Program. 

The YAC will hold goal setting sessions, which will be facilitated by a YPS, and form goal groups that will meet monthly to discuss progress on the goals both in individual projects, and how our goals apply on the national and international levels. 

All in all, UP for Learning’s YPS team is looking forward to an exciting, new approach to the Youth Action Council. The YPS team has been busy designing and collaborating on curricula to use for YAC’s various layers, and we look forward to sharing it with all of UP’s Youth Interns!