YE4C is all about young people making a difference in their lives and the world around them. Today’s post celebrates five youth leaders who do just that: Humberto Palacios, Julie Jent, Sarai Antoine, Phoenix Ramirez, and Jemira Queen. In September, all five came to Washington, D.C. from across the country to talk about ways to help get young people back to school or work. These young leaders met with organizations for two days and drew on their personal experiences and stories from their communities.

Here are a few points from the meeting:

1. Connecting youth to school and work is a complex issue that takes groups of people with different experiences, knowledge, and skills.
2. Mentors can make a difference in helping connect youth to school and work. Mentors can be found in places all around the community. For example, in libraries, classrooms, households, and community clubs.
3. Rising to the challenge of connecting youth to school and work requires commitment to remain engaged for change over time.

Listen on YE4C Radio to a conversation between a youth leader who attended the meeting, Jemira Queen, and Joni Holifield, a practitioner who founded her own organization to work with young people in Baltimore.

Visit the @youthengaged4change Instagram page to see video clips from the meeting.

We appreciate the work of everyone who joined us for the meeting in September. We are especially grateful to Humberto, Julie, Sarai, Phoenix, and Jemira for adding their voices to the conversation. If you are interested in this topic or experiencing disconnection, please visit https://youth.gov/topic/reconnecting-youth.