Why young people are getting more involved in Stanislaus government, political issues
Earlier this month, the Modesto City Council announced a project to restart the city’s youth commission after more than a decade. High school students made it happen.
The Stanislaus County Office of Education is spearheading projects to amplify youth voices and train young people to occupy leadership roles.
At high schools, more students are joining Black student unions, and mental health awareness clubs are expanding. A Turlock senior founded a chapter this fall of the National Organization for Women.
Political movements driven by young people certainly aren’t new in this country. In the past few years alone, young people organized for Black Lives Matter, protested against gun violence in March for Our Lives and coordinated strikes to call for action on climate change.
But at this moment in Stanislaus County, steps taken by high school students and adults demonstrate a growing recognition of the value of youth perspectives on local matters.
“We need to hear from them on whatever issues, quite frankly, are important to them,” Modesto Mayor Sue Zwahlen said.
Focusing locally
In Modesto, Enochs High School senior Michael Balerite said when young people were confined to their homes during the pandemic, they were forced to focus their attention locally. No longer could they venture to more resource-rich cities like San Francisco or Los Angeles, he said.
Balerite realized he needed to play a greater role in making his hometown a more exciting place to live. Participating in local government has made him more invested in the trajectory of his city, he said. He views youth civic engagement as a critical tool in retaining young talent, a problem Modesto leaders are looking to remedy.
“Kids don’t think living in Modesto is cool,” Balerite said. “But if city and county officials reached out to students, saying, ‘This is a beautiful place to live, this is a wonderful place to live, this is where you would want to raise your family, and we want to include you in that discussion,’ then I think not only would we see a greater regional retainment of talent of young people, but we would also see greater involvement.”
Balerite is part of the group of Modesto high school students that has planned over the past year to restart the city youth commission. Youth commissions are groups of young people that make recommendations to city councils, provide input on city matters and sometimes organize community events.
Many California cities have them. Modesto’s was cut around 2009 due to budget constraints during the recession.
After learning Modesto lacked a designated space for young people to affect local governance, Modesto High School seniors Rana Banankhah and Nithya Medam set out to lobby for its revival.
“We deserve a youth commission just as much as anyone else,” said Banankhah, who serves on the Modesto City Schools and California boards of education.
Banankhah and Medam pitched their idea to Zwahlen soon after she was sworn into office in February. The City Council made their efforts official in December.
A group of eight students now is in charge of crafting bylaws and developing the commission’s operations. The teens hope to open student applications for the commission by the end of this school year. They’re not sure yet how many students will be part of the commission, but they plan to keep an advisory board open for any interested student to join.
Ninfa Smith, planning coordinator for the Stanislaus County Office of Education, said organized efforts to engage young people in Stanislaus are overdue.
The office’s Cradle to Career Partnership brought several organizations together last year to launch the Stanislaus County Youth Empowerment Alliance, an initiative to shift power to young people.
The alliance will train young people to serve on boards and commissions with the goal of diversifying the county’s elected offices. It will host a Youth Empowerment Convening next year and put together a campaign that publicizes the experiences of youth.
“It’s an opportunity for the public to understand the barriers youth are facing in our county, from the source,” Smith said. “That to me is going to be key in how change will happen.”
Time to think, learn
At Pitman High School in Turlock, senior Simone Samra said she became interested in feminism and activism during the pandemic.
“You had a lot of time to think about everything in depth because you weren’t really doing much except staying at home,” she said.
Since starting a chapter of the National Organization for Women this school year, she’s encountered resistance from peers and struggled to build membership. Political advocacy still carries stereotypes at school, she said.
“They think you’re just being a lot,” Samra said. But, she said, “it’s so important for the youth to think about these things. And think deeper about every issue and what we promote as a society.”
In some cases, the pandemic has eased those stereotypes. Enochs junior Candance Gregoire-Pierson said she has observed friends who typically stay quiet begin to use their voice.
People were inspired to learn more about Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ+ issues and more, she said.
In a way, she feels the pandemic brought people together. “Since we couldn’t change COVID,” Gregoire-Pierson said, “we looked to change other things.”
