About Us

Our Passion

In direct response to the public outcry for the murder of George Floyd to the cancellation of SYEP, young people needed an outlet to be civically engaged and to move from marching to the electoral power of change. DYCD launched the We the YOUTH, You the People virtual town hall series which is a youth-led, developed, and driven platform for young people to discuss the issues that matter most to them. As a City agency that represents youth, we wanted to empower NYC youth and cultivate civic action. The pandemic coupled with civil unrest provided a unique opportunity to engage broadly with young people. The initiative is led by the We the YOUTH advisory council consisting of young people ages 14 – 24 from across New York City many of whom are not a participant of a DYCD-funded program.

DYCD - the mayoral youth town hall logo

Our Purpose: 

The Youth Town Hall is a vehicle to engage young people in meaningful dialogue that will contribute to the development of a NYC Youth agenda to inform policy, practice and programs that engage and/or are created to support young people. Moreover, to provide a youth agenda on relevant topics and present to the incoming NYC Mayor and other officials seeking office that determine the funding and priorities of youth programming. Most importantly, we want to ensure that young people have a permanent seat at the table when decisions impacting them in NYC are being made.

Past Town Halls

For more information on the Youth Town Hall series, go to: https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/ dycd/digital_toolkit/Youth_Town_Hall.html