Welcome to this meeting of the Mayor and Denver City Council.

At this weekly session, city agencies brief the mayor and council members on various proposals and projects across the city.

This meeting of the mayor and city council members begins now.

Councilmember Watson?

Thank you, Madam President, as I was just nutshell by Councilwoman Lewis.

This weekend is uh Pride Fest.

Uh we have one of the largest Pride uh celebrations.

Um, I would say in the country, but obviously in a Rocky Mountain West.

It's our fifty-fifth anniversary of Denver Pride.

This year, as Council Member Lewis and I um did a proclamation last night is of um even greater importance because of what we're facing from the federal government and a whole host of factors um still come out to a family-friendly uh communicate community celebrated event this Friday, I mean this Saturday and this Sunday.

Um, and uh thank you so much to the Center, um, one Colorado for once again leading, I think the uh best event uh in June.

Thank you so much, Madam President.

Thank you.

Any other announcements?

All right.

So I don't have what's next.

Um I guess we have a presentation from the mayor's youth commission.

So should we get started on that?

Hi, good morning, everyone, and thanks for having us here.

Um I name Director Terris, and I am also director of the hospital.

I'm Kim Scholes, I'm the associate director of Shaq's Alley.

I'm allowed to collins, I'm the mental health administrator.

We're here to talk to you about some of the program updates.

A little bit of an overview of what the mayor's commission is and what we're um working on making it be for the 2025-2026 program year, um, which will kick off in September.

We run a program here that runs September three major line of the school year for our young people.

And um, it's a really exciting time, I think, for our young people to be more involved in city work and just activism and advocacy more broadly.

And this is a really great group of young people.

Uh we're really excited to share with you these opportunities.

I do think that it has a lot of time for uh the work that City Council will be doing this year and beyond.

So our vision for the mayor's youth commission is based around these four pillars.

Um we really want to bring youth insights and new perspectives, youth voices into everything that we do associate.

And as we talk about uh our work as a seasonal rod.

Uh we try to bring the first group of leaders to us active.

And we also are just really passionate about making them the best place to work for uh children and uh we want to give you an opportunity to learn how their safe functions, both from the inside of the guts and the things that we use all the sea walking people are really interested.

Um always trying to how many 15-year-olds want to just understand uh some new processes.

They're just so fast, things like that.

We really also wanted to make sure that um our youth are developing leadership.

We attract a lot of young leaders on inclination for the years in the classrooms in the schools.

Um we want to give them opportunities to home those skills, grow them and become even better quite the years if they want beyond high school and into the remote.

And then again, one thing that we really are proud of is we have some great adult commissioners who build those authentic relationships, whether we can build uh group or with people providing other vendors or they can go to about commission related work in our service projects or sometimes it's how you're gonna have to be on the right through pathway to send them up for that post-secondary uh education uh plan that they have.

We know that young people are not just teacher leaders, they are the experts in their own experiences, um and their insights are critical to creating effective inclusive city policies.

This really goes really hand in hand with what it's have a child friendly city.

Um we already have a great foundation to start that commission.

Now what we want to do is build on that and invite youth to be part of decision making.

And what would real inclusion look like when we really gather young people's voices around the table and help us be in partnership with them?

Um so yeah, that's one of the things that we're really looking forward to to do is that one of the things that we have done in our updates for recruitment and selection is we want every district to be represented.

So we have worked really hard on recruitment, working with our community-based organizations that work with young people, really networking.

Um, even some of you all have put um your our um our online messaging in your cutters.

We appreciate that.

And too often um in youth spaces, even with the most well-intended ones, ended up reflecting a narrow slice of young people, those with access time with access, those with more time and support to participate, and we know that youth experiences not just not just a one-size fits all.

So we want the youth commission is what we want every member to bring different lines on to take mission to really uh make the work really successful and really drive home the work that we're doing.

And the other thing that we're really focused on is effective adult mentors.

We really are looking for people with lived experiences that will share that with our youth mentors.

Um, we want them to bring their networks.

We know that many people have great networks out there.

We want them to share those experiences with our young people, and we want some people to bring in their professional experiences as well, um to really drive home the work that we're doing.

So that's what we are really focused on for this next full year in the commission.

As you guys will see, you'll notice you'll hear a common theme.

We're definitely talking a lot about networks, you know, tapping into those leaders that exist within the city, and then also community.

Um, so you know, as far as leadership development, that's definitely one of our tenets that we hold every single year for the mayor's youth commission.