Published in the May 18, 2020 edition.
By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — The town’s Youth Council is taking shape.
The Town Council last week appointed 10 high school students to serve on the newly formed Youth Council. Back in February, the Town Council voted to create an 11-member Youth Council that would include residents in the 13-18 age group.
The goal of the Youth Council is to create opportunity to engage the voices and perspectives of younger residents while also providing members with civic guidance from adult leaders. The Council will meet monthly and will learn to effectively advocate for youth interests and provide input on town initiatives and policies. They will work with an adult advisor to refine their mission, goals, and structure and assign liaisons to other town committees. The Youth Council will also provide a platform for adult leaders to educate and inform younger residents on how town government makes decisions and how we can more effectively problem solve and improve the lives of local citizens.
As created, the structure of the Youth Council includes eight high school age students and three middle school age students.
Ten high school students applied and all were appointed. But since the structure calls for just eight high school students, the Town Council decided that eight would be voting members and two would be non-voting members. It was determined that the first eight to who applied would be the voting members. They are Alyssa Toppi, Megan Cohen, Summer Milsky, Uma Gerweck, Nicholas Pilleri, Yana Herzog, Alexander Skeldon and Lauren Blois. The non-voting members of the Youth Council are Anthony Amatucci and Emmanuella Desruisseaux.
Middle school age residents 13 and over are now being sought to fill those three slots on the Youth Council. Anyone interested in serving should submit an application to Town Council Clerk Sherri Dalton at sdalton@wakefield.ma.us by May 22.
The School Superintendent and the Town Administrator will be ex-officio members. All Wakefield residents age 13-18 are encouraged to participate in any meetings of the Youth Council and to raise any ideas, issues or concerns to the Youth Council.
As a fully-appointed committee of the Town, Youth Council members will be expected to meet at least monthly in duly posted meetings, maintain meeting minutes, elect a Chair and Vice Chair and create agendas including public participation so any non-member youth or adults can present issues for the Council’s consideration. They will also assign liaisons to other town committees or departments and the Town Administrator will ensure that the liaisons are allowed to actively participate at meetings.
The Youth Council will report at least annually to the Town Council on activities and invite town leaders to their meetings to engage in conversation regarding town government issues and processes. The Youth Council will have a budget of $1,000.
The Town Council also last week appointed Catherine Dhingra to be the adult advisor for the Youth Council. She was instrumental in the creation of the Youth Council and has long had involvement with local youth as the advisor to the Youth Action Team on issues of health and wellness. Youth Council members will work with the adult advisor to refine the Council’s mission, goals and structure.