As fall is fast approaching, the students of West Slope Youth Voice (WSYV) are turning the page with a new focus for the school year which gives us a great chance to reflect on the summer’s successes and look forward to the ones ahead. While the summer months are often a time for students to kick back and take it easy, WSYV was hard at work preparing ways to encourage their peers to get involved with democracy at all levels.

As part of their planning, students met to come up with a theme for this year’s issues report that represented their mission well and chose to go with Building a Better Future — including hard-hats, hammers, and everything in between! The students chose the layout and design elements for the yearly issues report, and spent time parsing out the results of the bills we tracked and for which we lobbied during the 2022 legislative session. They then wrote up a bill summary in their own words to explain the importance and status of each piece of legislation to students on the Western Slope and across Colorado.

Along with the issues report, the students also wrote a script for and recorded the annual WSYV video that seeks to highlight the importance of young people participating in democracy and making their voices heard. The video debuted at Western Colorado Alliance’s 2022 Annual Conference. View it yourself here!

WSYV is beginning classroom presentations wherein the students speak in front of their peers, show the video they created, explain what bills they tracked and lobbied for and why, issue the new and improved student survey to collect data on student issues for next year’s report, and offer the chance for every student to register to vote.

The students also plan to partner with other local, student-led organizations to host voter registration events on separate days throughout the year to promote voting and participation in every election, big or small.

The students knocked on doors in the lead up to the November 8 elections in support of Proposition FF (the Healthy School Meals for All initiative), which the students were thrilled to see win at the ballot box!

WSYV is now preparing for the 2023 legislative session. The students are eager to engage on important legislation at our 2023 Lobby Day in February, and maybe even run a bill of their own! This year, the students have a unique opportunity to work with West Slope elected officials to craft legislation aimed at combating the youth mental health crisis that has plagued Western Colorado for far too long. Keep an eye out for updates as WSYV fights to bring much needed legislation regarding this topic to the Governor’s desk next year.

WSYV is a student-led organization for high school aged-youth across the Western Slope seeking to make a difference. If you have any questions, or know someone who you know would like to get involved or support West Slope Youth Voice, please reach out to Tyler at tyler@westerncoloradoalliance.org.