Sponsor Students to Engage in the Youth Summit on Youth Policymaking

Learning Life is working to raise $15,000 for up to 150 diverse 8th-12th graders in the Washington, DC region to take part in the first Youth Summit on Youth Policymaking (YSYP) in DC this fall.

Two Problems

Segregation: The DC area is highly segregated, sorting people and resources in sharply unequal ways, leading to very different social, economic, health outcomes for people depending on where they live.  For instance, average life expectancy varies by as many 27 years in different DMV (DC-MD-VA metro area) neighborhoods.  These divides in our midst extend to our kids, who may live walking distance apart, yet never meet, let alone interact meaningfully, because they live in very different neighborhoods, go to very different schools, leading to very different jobs, ways of life, and life trajectories.

Disconnection: In schools, too often academic work is disconnected from the real world of work.  Children do assignments, but those assignments are usually academic exercises that move students up to the next ability grade, without connecting them meaningfully to the adults and institutions that shape their world.  Further, many youth, but especially those from lower-income families and neighborhoods, get little if any civic education that meaningfully connects them to people and policies in power.

Tackling the Problems

The Youth Summit on Youth Policymaking (YSYP) tackles segregation and disconnection by (1) connecting DMV youth who would otherwise likely never meet, let alone collaborate, and (2) engaging them in learning and discussion directed at bridging the gap between education and power/policymaking.

Specifically, on Saturdays, September 27 online and October 4 in person this year, YSYP will bringing together up to 150 8th-12th graders from diverse DMV public, private and charter schools online then in-person to learn, deliberate and propose policies for engaging DMV youth in policymaking that affects them at school, city, county and/or state government levels.

Preceding the Summit, eligible students will learn about each other and the Summit, plus meet professionals in and out of government with experience in policymaking via Learning Life’s wider DMV Democracy Learning Community (DLC) on Linkedin.

Proceeding the Summit, motivated participants will be able to discuss the YSYP-proposed policies with public officials and civic associations, continue learning and connecting with each other and policy professionals, and advise the next YSYP student cohort in 2026, with an eye to cultivating a new generation of engaged citizens in the DC region, and ensuring diverse DMV youth are systematically considered and included in government.

Sponsor the Summit Youth

Contribute $100 to $1,000 now to sponsor one to ten of up to 150 DMV youth’s Summit participation, and help us reach the first $7,500 of the $15,000 goal by Monday, June 30.  YSYP is part of the 2025 DMV Democracy Festival, taking place on Saturday, October 4 in DC, so when you contribute, you help us reach our overall DemFest fundraising goal of $25,000.

As a sponsor, we’ll keep you posted about the Summit via email, and invite you to observe the Summit at DemFest on October 4.  You will also be invited to join the Linkedin group so you can get to know the kids and adults involved in the growing YSYP community.

Thank you for your support of our Summit youth!