Youth Leadership Academy (YLA)

 

Youth Leadership Academy Overview

Join us in the Spring 2025 for in-person Youth Leadership Academy, held on Tuesdays April 1, 8, 22, and 29th from 4:30 to 5:30 pm at the Glenarden Branch library. All interested youth are encouraged to come out and join us for four fun sessions, which will include an overview of social justice activists, human trafficking awareness, a session on misinformation, and The Social Justice Game.

While we have previously taken applications for YLA, for Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 we are inviting students to join us on a drop-in basis! 

The Office of Human Rights encourages all youth who are interested in civil and human rights, and social justice issues to come out and participate! Previous sessions of YLA have been held in the virtual space (for several years), in Bladensburg, and now in Glendarden. We invite you to keep checking in to see where we will be next! During the summer, the Office of Human Rights' Youth Leadership Academy partners with the Prince George's County Memorial Library System for Social Justice Camp, an intensive experiential week. 

The Office of Human Rights is the county’s civil and human rights education and enforcement agency and hasfour divisions:  investigations of allegations of discrimination; leading a coordinated collaborative response to sex and labor trafficking through the Prince George’s County Human Trafficking Task Force; implementing and managing equal access to County services regardless of English proficiency through the Language Access Compliance Program; and robust outreach and engagement programming to build community and to reduce incidents of hate, bias, and violence. Joining the Youth Leadership Academy allows you to explore one or more of these areas.

Mission

The mission is to develop programming that is youth-developed and youth-led to engage minds for a changed tomorrow.

Vision

The vision of the YLA is to promote peer-to-peer education on civil and human rights issues while developing civil and human rights social influencers who are passionate and knowledgeable.  The YLA further seeks to develop youth-led ideas, programming, and execution across a wide range of areas.

Program Details, Goals, and Objectives

The Office of Human Rights will work with all students of the YLA through program development ideas, and implementation.  Grade Point Average and other academic standards are not a pre-requisite to entrance into the Academy as the Office of Human Rights recognizes the value of inclusion. 

The YLA commits to: prioritizing youth and young-adult empowerment; focusing on skill building in various areas; creating opportunities for project development; encouraging peer advocacy; enhancing personal and advocacy growth; promoting diversity and self-awareness; generating opportunities to establish additional support networks; and fostering overall social change influencers.