H.Res. 171: Expressing support for the designation of February 2023 as “National Youth Leadership Month”.

Whereas youth are children and adolescents as well as those making the transition into early adulthood;

Whereas, while it is essential that we, as adults, care for our youth, it is also our responsibility to ensure that the youth are among today’s leaders and are well prepared to lead future generations;

Whereas, as of 2020, 73,106,000 Americans were under 18 years of age, comprising 22.1 percent of the United States population;

Whereas it is especially critical that youth voices are uplifted in policy conversations because despite the fact that youth do not have the right to vote in elections, each policy enacted by their representatives will have an effect on them;

Whereas effective policymaking requires a clear and nuanced understanding of the problems and of the context within which policy solutions will take place;

Whereas youth are the foremost experts in their own lived experiences;

Whereas youth have been at the vanguard of every social movement;

Whereas youth are capable of engaging in substantive and productive discussions of issues and as partners in the policymaking process;

Whereas the nuanced perspectives that youth are able to offer based on their aforementioned experiences are critical to crafting effective policies that avoid unintended consequences;

Whereas policies that impact youth are incomplete and insufficient if youth are not authentically engaged in the policymaking process;

Whereas specifically youth who are or have been involved in the child welfare and youth justice systems have crucial perspectives about the functioning of those systems and how they impact youth and families;

Whereas when youth are empowered to lead throughout their formative years, they develop a strong sense of identity and become engaged civic participants that take pride and ownership in their work and those that they lead;

Whereas these benefits are especially potent for youth from communities that have been historically excluded from leadership roles, including youth of color, Native youth, LGBTQ+ youth, youth from religious minorities, poor youth, and the estimated 391,000 youth in foster care on a given day;

Whereas, in the context of child welfare, authentic youth engagement is an approach that prioritizes elevating youth to be leaders in shaping their lives and directing their futures alongside the adults in their communities and the child welfare workforce and is recognized as best practice within the child welfare system;

Whereas child welfare experts agree that implementing authentic youth engagement for the purposes of case planning, court processes, and the implementation of youth advisory boards leads to better outcomes for youth within the child welfare system as well as positive systems changes overall;

Whereas youth development experts agree that despite the benefits of youth leadership, the subject is critically understudied;

Whereas conducting further empirical research on youth leadership would yield immediate application for policymakers, educators, parents, and employers, and youths themselves; and

Whereas we support designating February 2023 as National Youth Leadership Month to uplift current youth leaders and those doing the important work of supporting youth leadership: Now, therefore, be it