On March 12 and 13, five members of the Greenbelt Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) and their staff liaison, Alison Longworth, attended the National League of Cities (NLC) Congressional City Conference held in Washington, D.C. The annual conference brings together city policy makers and thought leaders to discuss issues and federal policies that affect cities, funding opportunities and emerging practices among cities. YAC members Ema Smith, Julia Sharapi, Findley Holland, Arsalan Siddiqui and Selim Boukabara attended as part of a 300-member youth delegation from around the country.
Smith was asked to take part in a panel discussion, because of YAC’s successful campaign to lower the voting age to 16 in Greenbelt. “We had a workshop on increasing youth engagement, including a panel that I got to speak on. I discussed how lowering the municipal voting age can help increase youth engagement and how exactly that works,” stated Smith.
Longworth was also asked to address the youth delegate chaperone workshop on the Journey to Lowering the Voting Age. The topic was of great interest to many of the attendees and Greenbelt provided a case study for others to follow.
Read more of this story in the April 12 News Review.
