Problem:

The Florida Youth Commission was the youth entity that advised the Governor’s Youth Cabinet, which develops policy guidance and creation for Florida’s youth on behalf of the Governor. There were multiple complaints from community members and stakeholders that the Commission was not only irrelevant, but did not adequately represent the students of the state, and thus, could not properly advise the cabinet on policy and issues on behalf of the students.

Strategy:

To completely rebrand and revamp the Commission to:

  • Align itself with is purpose and values

  • Ensure that it’s accessible to the young people who need to serve

  • Provide young people with the tools and resources needed to serve to their full capacity

Solution:

  • Launched a massive statewide recruitment and marketing campaign to spread the word about the council, centering the communities who haven’t traditionally had access to the commission

  • Revamped the application and trained the reviewers to decrease implicit bias

  • Created a social justice and civic 101 training for the cabinet members to ensure access for folks who might not otherwise qualify

  • Built a network of statewide partners to support the commission in their local communities to create the community buy-in needed for the commissioners’ success

  • Developed international and statewide partnerships with youth organizations, schools and stakeholders to aide in youth engagement activities and initiatives

  • Developed and implemented statewide Youth Engagement curriculum so the tools we learned could be replicated around the state to continue to build pipelines into the commission

OUTCOME:

In one cycle, the Commission went from 20 young people from six communities, to 20 young people from 20 communities who also mirrored the cultural and racial demographics of the state.