Our exciting youth program to engage students and young people in our democracy and advocate for youth issues with elected leaders has grown and accomplished so much in the last year, from winning a new school-based health center at the new Grand Junction High School to hosting our first-ever youth-led candidate forum. The students are really hitting their stride and stepping into their power.

As we now celebrate the victories we just won during the recent Student Voices Lobby Day at the end of January, the students have begun to set their priorities for the new year and are eyeing some new ways to engage more youth with elected leaders and in the 2024 General Election in November.

One of the first steps the students want to take to expand their voices is to invite more students from more parts of the Western Slope to make their own voices heard. We have developed a winning strategy in Mesa County, and we want to share that with students in additional counties across the Western Slope. Every county in Western Colorado has unique issues and unique perspectives, and we are eager to see those shared with our elected leaders at all levels to ensure their needs are being met and their opinions are valued.

Toward that end, West Slope Youth Voice hosted a Youth Summit in Garfield County in January encouraging students in that critically important county to not only join our current students at West Slope Youth Voice but to create their own program specifically aimed at youth priorities across their county.

Later this year, we are hoping to develop yet another chapter of West Slope Youth Voice in Montrose County and are looking forward to involving students there in our important work. If you know of any students interested in getting involved in either Garfield or Montrose counties, please connect them with us as all youth are welcome!

As for the ongoing work happening in Mesa County, the students have outlined their priorities for the year and are setting the stage for a big 2024.

The students engaged heavily in 2023 with their school board, fighting for a school-based health center in the new Grand Junction High School, organizing a candidate forum for the 2023 school board elections, and meeting individually with each school board member. They hope to continue the relationships they have built and make sure youth voices are a priority with the board by creating new policy for the board to consider including allowing youth to speak first at all school board meetings, organizing quarterly meetings with the school board members, creating a youth advisory committee made up of students from across the district to work with the council regularly on policy decisions, fighting potential book bans, and creating a new system for students to report teacher misconduct.

This year is also a major election year, and we are aiming to turn out youth voters in the 2024 General Election. We will be working hard to register students to vote and speak with youth about the importance of their vote in not only the November election, but also the primaries and caucuses. Gen Z and Millennial voters now comprise the largest voting block in the country and it is important that young voters take to the polls to ensure they are getting the representation they both need and deserve.