The Youth Council seeks to inspire local seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade students to build leadership and civic responsibility, to gain a better understanding of municipal government and to prepare youth for a lifetime of public and community service.
In order to participate in the Youth Council, students must be enrolled in a public or private middle school located within the Valdosta city limits and must have a minimum 2.5 grade point average, according to city officials. Educators in the schools will nominate students for the 2018-19 Valdosta Youth Council program year.
Once selected, the youth must commit to attend the scheduled monthly meetings and complete a minimum of eight community service hours.
“We want to engage these students in their local government before they reach high school and give them opportunities to grow as leaders in our community,” Gayle said. “This youth-run council, guided by an advisory board of local educators and city staff, has made significant accomplishments since their first year and I’m confident they will continue to have a true impact in our community.”
The members of the Valdosta Youth Council 2017-18 certainly did make an impact, embracing their mission and achieving a variety of accomplishments, including the following, according to city officials:
• Gained an understanding and appreciation of municipal government by meeting monthly with a variety of city and local leaders including the neighborhood development manager, the planning and zoning administrator, the Southern marketing coordinator for the Georgia Department of Agriculture, Officer Carla Jones and her new therapy dog, Hope, the police chief, the stormwater manager, the water treatment plant superintendent, the city marshal and the public works supervisor.
• Participated in the City of Valdosta Second Annual Dumpster Art Project that transformed city trash dumpsters in the downtown area into pieces of public art.
• Participated in the Valdosta Christmas tree lighting, the electronics recycling event and other city-sponsored events.
• Traveled to Atlanta to visit the Governor’s Mansion, the State Capitol and the Georgia Department of Agriculture where the youth learned about state government and interacted with state leadership.
• Hosted leadership development training in January when Valdosta Youth Council members identified leadership traits in themselves, as well as in others.
• Oversaw the 2018 “If I Were Mayor” essay contest.
• Collectively completed more than 100 community service hours.
• Continued a growing presence on the Youth Council Facebook page for youth to follow council work, to be informed on youth issues and to discover ways to be engaged in local government.
• Organized two cleanups of its adopted .6-mile portion of North Lee Street resulting in 15 30-gallon bags of trash removed from the city street.
• Produced two Youth Council meetings that were shown on Metro 17 with the assistance of Marcus McConico of the city-operated television channel to discuss issues being addressed each month at council meetings and ran 16 council stories during the year on "City Focus."
• Documented their third year of council activities in a hard-bound scrapbook that will be passed on each year to the succeeding council.
Valdosta Youth Council 2018-19 applications may be obtained from school principals and counselors, or a copy may be downloaded from the city website, www.valdostacity.com/valdosta-youth-council. The application deadline is Friday, Aug. 24, and the new council members will officially be sworn in at the Sept. 20, Valdosta City Council meeting.
