By Caroline González

Strategic Alliances/Social Impact
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation is committed to engaging young people in developing solutions that work for them. Our Opportunity Youth initiative supports partners who provide tools and work to remove systemic barriers that help young people achieve economic and personal success. We believe that to strengthen the voice of young people – those directly affected and served by this work – it is essential to create truly effective and sustainable solutions. Strengthening youth voices is essential to changing narratives around youth, creating policies that keep youth outcomes at the center, and encouraging youth to advocate on their own behalf. Our work with Opportunity Youth is focused on Los Angeles and New Orleans in the United States, Mexico City in Mexico, and Mombasa in Kenya. Below are some highlights of how we are strengthening youth voice in each of these geographies.

Los Angeles: YouthSource Centers

We collaborate with the City of Los Angeles' Youth Development Department (YDD) to empower youth voice at the city's 14 Youth Employment Centers (YouthSource Centers) by creating a Youth Advisory Council. Youth who participate in the Youth Advisory Council are offered meaningful opportunities to guide, advise, implement and evaluate Los Angeles youth workforce development policies. YouthSource Centers are city-run programs that offer youth a variety of services, including job readiness training, mentoring, job skills training, and counseling. YouthSource Centers serve more than 10,000 youth and young adults each year. 

YDD believes Youth Advisory Councils will provide a model for integrating youth leadership and input into government services and workforce development centers that can be replicated in other agencies and jurisdictions. In addition to shaping the YouthSource centers' service delivery system, the initiative will prepare participants for civic roles on city commissions, city employment opportunities, and leadership and communication training.

The 70 new Youth Council members, representatives of the 14 YouthSource Center program partners and local youth workforce leaders.

Los Angeles youth panelists during the September 2023 Los Angeles Grantee Partner Meeting (left to right): Makalah Lilio, Mayceo Flores, Whimzi Ha, Victoria Perez, Sherrie Bradford and Christie Cardenas–Hilton Foundation Program Officer – Opportunity Youth . Photo credit: Abraham Fuentes

New Orleans: Youth Advisory Council

In New Orleans, we support the New Orleans Child and Youth Planning Board (CYPB) Youth Advisory Council, created in 2020, to give voice to the needs and interests of the youth population. This group of between 11 and 25 young people, aged between 14 and 24, meets monthly to co-create, contribute and report on the priorities, implementation and monitoring of CYPB projects, including the Master Plan of New Orleans Youth to 10 years (2020-2030). 

The Youth Advisory Council Executive Committee examines opportunities to assume Youth Voice roles in initiatives aligned with the Youth Master Plan, such as reviewing grants to enhance summer youth programs, focus groups for reporting on pilot projects, peer mentoring to support the creation of other youth leadership groups and participation in national conferences.

The Youth Advisory Council also works with Revolutionary Researchers who design and conduct data-driven, youth-focused research to help communicate the progress, successes and opportunities for improvement of the Youth Master Plan through the voices and expressions of the young people of New Orleans.

New Orleans Youth Advisory Council Meeting

Mombasa: Swahilipot Hub Foundation

In Mombasa, we support the work of the Swahilipot Hub Foundation and the Global Development Incubator Africa (GDI Africa) to train young people as effective advocates. In 2023, they mobilized youth from across Mombasa to contribute to the County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP), an administrative plan that sets out the county's work priorities for the next five years. Young people were able to make concrete demands for more resources and programming. It was the first foray of most of the young participants into the defense of rights. They described how they felt empowered. They now understand how government processes work, why CIDP is important to their lives, and how they can lobby for a government that responds to their needs. The county government said it was the most productive CIDP process they had had with young people.

Rajib Salim, Chairman of the Mombasa Youth Advisory Group, expresses his opinion in a meeting with the Mombasa County Government.

Mexico City: Citizen Initiative for the Promotion of the Culture of Dialogue

In Mexico City, we support the Citizen Initiative Youth Advocacy Laboratory, a project to create a comprehensive youth advocacy strategy in social, economic and labor policy in Mexico City and the JuventudES Platform so that young people and organizations serving youth share learning and tools. 

Initiative's public policy and advocacy workshops aim to empower young people to advocate for their own interests before employers, civil society and the government. The Juventus platform reinforces this objective by providing information, collaboration opportunities and a space for young people to get in touch with decision-makers.

The project aims to give visibility to young people and actions led by them throughout Mexico and ensure that young people's voices and priorities are heard.