Youth Advocacy Summit 2024 CommUNITY
Youth Development Program
Friday, June 28 to Sunday, June 30 from 10am-3pm
TBD
OCA-Greater Houston and Mi Familia en Acción are partnering together to host the 2024 Youth Advocacy Summit. The mission of this annual youth leadership program is to educate and empower Houston-area youth to become community advocates. This is done by learning about issues through experts, developing leadership and organizing skills. Youth Advocacy Summit consistently offers leadership opportunities for students as well as PAID opportunities.
Our theme for this year's Youth Advocacy Summit is “CommUNITY/ComUNIDAD,” reflecting the connections we have with ourselves, our histories, and across our communities. At YAS 2024, we will encourage our youth to reflect on their histories, shared experiences, and cultures, and relate it to the Greater Houston community. Houston is notoriously called a melting pot of cultures and heritages, but we believe that Houston looks more like a salad bowl — where different cultures mix yet remain distinct and sovereign. By celebrating the diversity that unifies us, we can organize together and lean into a multifaceted, multicultural conversation on how to generate genuine change.
Youth Advocacy Summit is just one of many events that OCA-GH and MFA host – we hope that attending YAS will inspire youth to attend our future workshops and events to further develop their skills as young agents of change.
Past attendees have gone on to become bright leaders and scholars in Houston, such as participating in the Mayoral Leadership Council, attend top universities in our nation, and most importantly have become people who have the skills to change the world for the better. Additionally, Youth Advocacy Summit participants have gone on to testify at City Council, lead voter engagement campaigns at their school, speak at press conferences at the Texas Capitol, and represent their community in a variety of actions through participation in the school year program. Attending Youth Advocacy Summit is the chance high school students do not want to miss!