Imagine a City in Which Youth Are Accounting for Youth! Power Mapping the Possibilities

Editors’ note: This piece is from Nonprofit Quarterly Magazine’s fall 2024 issue, “Supporting the Youth Climate Justice Movement.”

First, I want to honor the work of the people who came before me—work that led to the movements that support the current special projects I have the opportunity to work on as a health disparities researcher, neighbor, and community member in the City of Long Beach, CA.

I also want to note that what follows is a personal account. In my day to day as a health researcher, I am usually expected to write scientifically for a specialized audience or in a broad, general way for a public audience—I rarely get to share my experience of the city. In doing so, I want to pay homage to the peoples from whom I descend, who were falsely named as chattel and never consented to such, and to my people still affected by failing systems today.

Finally, I want to honor the Tongva-San Gabrielino people for the ongoing stewardship of the lands on which I serve my community. May this (being only one account of the experience of working movements of solidarity) be a testament to the power of our communities and people when we come together to hold big systems accountable. Let it be an example of what it looks like when we listen to and trust youth.

Becoming a Youth Council Member

In early 2021, at the height of the pandemic, I found myself responding to a call to apply to sit on the City of Long Beach’s inaugural Youth Advisory Council.¹ The form to apply was nestled in a newsletter by Dr. Suely Saro, our city’s first Cambodian American councilwoman—one of the first councilors I would come to trust.²

My teens and early twenties were defined by my fiery will to join solidarity movements working toward systemic change and liberation, not by community care—or care for myself, even….I ended up burned out by the age of 22.

Some weeks later, I was in a Zoom interview like no other I had ever experienced. Looking around the screen, I was surprised by the three very young faces that greeted me and asked pointed questions, and the older Black woman with a warm comportment—all of whom made me feel welcomed and comfortable in the virtual space. They introduced themselves as interns and staff at the Office of Youth Development, which I learned was only in its second year at the time of my interview.³ The culture of the office became evident to me during that interview, as two teenage girls and one young person in his twenties asked about the contributions I believed I could make toward advancing positive youth development. The office was straightforward in its purpose: to empower young people, and to strengthen the reach of their voices in citywide decision-making.

I was invited to become an at-large member of the City of Long Beach Youth Advisory Council soon thereafter, and I contributed to building the wheel of the office through its “terrible twos.” I was 26 years old and jaded by the state of the city during my time as a health disparities researcher. The non-community-based efforts toward improving the quality of life for my people (Black, Asian, LGBTQIA2SP+)⁴ were weak, difficult to access, too corporate or clinical, lacking in culture, or nonexistent. As the eldest member of our council of 12, I had already experienced activist and academic burnout for some years, and felt less spritely than our 11 younger members. I entered with the intention of pacing myself—wanting to listen, suggest, and make space, rather than toil, fight, and campaign to no end by taking up as much space as possible as a radical act of resistance. My teens and early twenties were defined by my fiery will to join solidarity movements working toward systemic change and liberation, not by community care—or care for myself, even. As I write this, I reflect on how odd that sounds in the context of where I am now. Nonetheless, I ended up burned out by the age of 22 from my past life as an advocate for historically marginalized peoples. One of the reasons I wanted to sit on the Youth Advisory Council was to carry my story forward as a cautionary tale: our movements and systems-change work do not need any more burned-out flames.

I felt deserving of the role but incredibly cloudy in it. It was a feeling I would become used to in the work. As I continued to take several steps back, my eyes, ears, and heart became open to the fact that the cloudiness—which all of us would come to feel at some point in our work—was a gift, in that it pushed us to create our own path as an emergent council. It was also an opportunity for me to learn how to better communicate and bridge across generations in the work.

How would we know what our fellow youth wanted? was the overall question in our first year. After some weeks of bonding as fellow council members, we got to work tapping into this question. We went through a difficult brainstorming cycle for weeks, with the overall goal of becoming aligned with what young people actually want from our city and learning more about what each department in our city does. Eventually, we garnered enough consistent cross-departmental guest presentations at our meetings to learn about the many efforts happening across—but not always between or among—departments. Our mapping and tracking of these efforts helped us to assess the state of youth-focused community resources and align more with youths’ collective goals, as illustrated in our guiding document: the Strategic Plan for Youth and Emerging Adults (also known as the Youth Strategic Plan, YSP, or simply, the Plan), which the Long Beach City Council adopted in February 2021.⁵

After such a long time of feeling like I had seen little impact from my own activism…I could now see community impact.

Our second order of action was to familiarize ourselves with the Plan, which helped to answer a majority of our questions and outlined the emerging youth power movements that felt accurate to my experience as a young person previously deeply involved in community work. Reviewing it was a grounding experience: it showed me what community participatory research done well could look like. The Plan, which seeks to be a vision of a healthy, resourced, people-powered foundation to come, is a guide to our city for anyone looking to improve the quality of life of young people and their families. It was developed via the combined efforts of 200 engaged community members, the Office of Youth Development, community-based organizations and nonprofit partnerships, a think tank of 757 youth participants, and researchers and writers, who identified and set forward six major focus areas:⁶

1. Youth development
2. Physical health, mental health, and emotional wellness
3. Planning for the future
4. Community care
5. Housing
6. Transportation

The Youth Strategic Plan ultimately led to the formation of the Youth Advisory Board, which was eventually renamed the Youth Advisory Council, reflecting the collaborative, circle-based nature of our meetings.

I became very interested in power mapping during this time, as we worked on building out a living map of the connections we were developing as a council.⁷ We met in small action teams to integrate the Plan’s activities into our day-to-day awareness of the inner workings of our communities and our actions within them—actions whose progress we were then able to track over time. This quickly became a passion project of mine—it felt like the opposite of what I had been doing in my early adulthood. After such a long time of feeling like I had seen little impact from my own activism (which I now believe should not be the core goal of one’s commitment at this stage in one’s life, and which is one of the things that contributed to my early burnout), I could now see community impact. I started to celebrate research efforts like this one as the process that comes from the protests: the walk to the talk.

Walking with the Plan

As someone who came to know the majority of my neighbors through the pandemic, I found the 62-page Plan to be a helpful companion to conversations with the community members who stopped by my porch. In the slowing down of life’s pace during the pandemic, we took time as neighbors to share our everyday struggles. The space that we would come to cocreate through swapping clothes and plants and offering advice on how to stay housed became a demonstration of what it looks like to organize around shared struggles, and how it could continue beyond the pandemic.

During this time, I found myself counting on the Plan quite often as a talking point of encouragement. I remember an elderly neighbor, a White woman with a mixed-race family who identified as a hippie sun worshipper, stopping by on a beautiful, still, bright day. Approaching her eighties, she is a veteran of her times, having lived through the Vietnam War drafts and all subsequent systemic failures. She expressed the lack of hope and the despair she had felt throughout the years while trying her hardest to fight to do what was right. I felt called to review parts of the Plan with her, describing the work that I—gratefully—get to do. I reminded her that she is not alone in how she feels society can be—that it can function more intergenerationally and provide far more positive resources to young people, for instance, than it does currently.

She often talked about how easy it was for her daughters to turn to substances when they were growing up, feeling bored and not seen at school, and I invited her to imagine with me how things could have been different in her and her children’s lives. These were data that I could bring to my department—I believe imagination is the best tool we have in the work of positive youth development. I reminded her that young people are still stepping out to change what it means to be young, to empower themselves and their communities, and to make lasting, sustainable social change against classism, racism, and cisheterosexism in our communities. The two of us came to meet up often after that, sharing snacks and tales—and during these times I did my best to reframe what could have been to what’s happening right now.

Youth Power Participatory Budgeting

One of the most groundbreaking systems of solidarity to come from the legacy of youth movement work in Long Beach is the development of our Youth Power PB (Participatory Budgeting) process. Like the Strategic Plan for Youth and Emerging Adults, Youth Power PB emerged through a young-people-powered, cross- departmental, grassroots-led effort that traces back to 2004. After more than a decade of advocacy for a People’s Budget, community members and our local Invest in Youth Coalition youth members surveyed residents, asking how they would prioritize city spending if they had a choice. The demographics of the response to the survey accurately reflected who I knew to be in my community. Most interesting to me: 61 percent of the people who responded were renters, who have historically had a difficult time achieving any upward mobility in our neighborhoods. Out of the 757 responses to the surveys, 7 out of 10 individuals indicated that they wanted to see increased support for youth-focused programming, with the top 3 areas of focus being supplemental academic programs, job training and youth jobs, and youth leadership and development. Of all the participants, 80 percent wanted to see thriving, community-based youth development programs in order to create stronger, safer communities.⁸

Throughout the process, the youngest of our council members and volunteers for the steering committee dealt with quite a few instances of adultism. They felt as though some adults in the nonprofits were overpowering their voices and trying to sway decisions.

The release of the results of this survey in 2018, coupled with the strong presence of community members and young people on the ground where it counted, led to actual, actionable change within our local government: the people won a part of the budget, and the data collected would inform how it would be spent!⁹

The pilot year of the Youth Power PB process was a difficult one. As a Youth Advisory Council member, I served on the system’s steering committee. The key responsibilities of the steering committee were to write the rules of the process and to get to know over a dozen community-based organizations as they familiarized themselves with the Youth Power PB process; and to support community partners, the city, and our local college’s evaluation staff in connecting with the community-based organizations around their youth programming ideas that young people would get to vote on. In the four phases of the system—the planning phase, the idea-collecting phase, the budgeting phase, and the voting phase—our role as steering committee would drive the process. After the youth vote during the spring, youth programs, all chosen by youth who live, work, or play in Long Beach, continue to get launch-ready for the summer. The workload can feel like a lot, but seeing so many community organizations that have made a great impact on community members (and on me, personally) all in one place each week was energizing. I loved witnessing the many moving parts come together to support the goals that residents and youth requested, through the data-collection efforts that young people fostered. The first year of the process felt like a marathon for the bulk of us, but programs were successfully chosen and delivered.¹⁰ Within a few months, we had geared up for our first official year, or cycle 2.

Throughout the process, the youngest of our council members and volunteers for the steering committee dealt with quite a few instances of adultism. They felt as though some adults in the nonprofits were overpowering their voices and trying to sway decisions when they could, even though they knew that Youth Power PB was an entirely youth-held system. It became a topic of discussion during the cycle 2 process that year. It inspired the young people who had been in the process since its beginning to speak up more often about the need for folks to check adultism at the door.

Otherwise, it has been rewarding to witness how our Youth Power PB system has grown in just a year. In 2024, our public Voter Fair was held on my birthday, April 24. This year’s cycle was marked by one stark difference in the rule book that young people had written: organizations were responsible for sponsoring youth ideas rather than for bringing their own ideas. It was fulfilling to witness youth getting to enjoy the fruits of their labor as organizations presented on the programs they had cocreated with their young representatives and our Youth Power PB volunteers.

There Is No Future without Us

Of course, we have a very long way to go.

The actions in the Youth Strategic Plan were designed to be completed in five years, which in my opinion is not enough time; however, it is the practice that counts. I am curious to see how we will move forward. I am incredibly proud to be part of a community that has continued to organize in an inclusive, solutions-oriented way. I know that we will continue to move with intentionality toward dismantling the root causes and resulting upstream issues of the health disparity fissures in our communities. As health professionals, activists, grassroots organizers, and nonprofits, we comprise a powerful force when we acknowledge and act in the interests of the will of young people locally—and this is likely the case everywhere.

In an article in Everyday Feminism on addressing adultism, fellow youth worker Kel Kray wrote that “youth aren’t just the future—they’re actually the now.”¹¹ It is a quote that stuck with me throughout my early years in the work, and it’s a quote that I shared with an incredible turnout of nearly 70 young people and allies, during our orientation to the second cycle of the Youth Power PB process—which I had the pleasure of cofacilitating. In the City of Long Beach, youth are possibility models for movements demanding to be a part of the now.

There is no future without us.

* * *

These days, when my hippie neighbor and I cross paths, she tells me that she has been a lot more hopeful since our many talks. Over the years, she has gotten to hear about all the various activities laid out in the Plan—now completed or in progress—and the programs and efforts that dozens of local nonprofits are implementing and offering with the support of our youth-driven movement. When I am doing the (sometimes tedious) work of building matrices and number-coding systems to track the Plan, and sending and answering cross-departmental emails and creating weekly PowerPoints, I think about our conversations on the porch. I remind myself that what I am doing is creating paths for hyperlocal work that will change the fabric of how we move together across generations, fields, neighborhoods, and goals.

I would like to thank Sherlyn Beatty, formerly of the Office of Youth Development, and David McGill Soriano, of the Office of Youth Development, for embracing my eagerness to begin massive projects very early on in my involvement. I would also like to thank Joy Yanga and Pouelinna Po, of Khmer Girls in Action, and their incredible support of my development throughout the Youth Power PB process. I want to thank every member of our first and second inaugural Youth Advisory Councils, including Maleka “Worldwide” Lassiter and Kimberly Lim, both of whom have served two terms. Finally, I thank the Office of Youth Development overall and our core team, who led us to two years of success and ongoing improvement of Youth Power PB. The commitment that each and every one of you have given to our city is precisely why we will continue to move toward a better Long Beach, and it is why I will continue to advocate for “thrival” for us all.

 Notes:

1. The 2021 newsletter is no longer available for See the 2023 version here: Department of Health & Human Services, “Youth Invited to Apply for Long Beach’s Youth Advisory Council,” press release no. 052623- 2, May 26, 2023, www.longbeach.gov/health/press-releases/youth-invited-to-apply-for-long-beachs-youth-advisory-council/.
2. See Suzanne Im, “Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month Spotlight on Suely Saro, First Cambodian American Councilperson in Long Beach,” LAPL Blog, Los Angeles Public Library, May 10, 2021, lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/asian-american-heritage-month-spotlight-suely-saro-first-cambodian.
3. “Statement of Possibility,” Office of Youth Development, Health & Human Services, City of Long Beach, accessed July 7, 2024, longbeach.gov/health/healthy-living/community/community-impact/office-of-youth-development/.
4. Lesbian, gay, bi, transgender, questioning, intersex, asexual, two-spirit, pansexual
5. Youth & Emerging Adults Strategic Plan: Toward a New Generation of Hope: The Long Beach Strategic Plan for Youth and Emerging Adults (Long Beach, CA: Long Beach Health and Human Services, 2021); Hayley Munguia and Josh Rosen, “Long Beach kicks off Youth Strategic Plan with community forums,” Press- Telegram, January 25, 2020, presstelegram.com/2020/01/25/long-beach-kicks-of-youth-strategic-plan-with-community-forums/; and Khmer Girls in Action, “Youth Power PB Long Beach, the first citywide participatory budgeting pilot process, kicks off to expand youth democracy and deliver equitable summer programs funded by Measure US,” press release, March 3, 2023, kgalb.ourpowerbase.net/civicrm/mailing/view?id=189&reset=1.
6. For information about the goals of our council, see Samantha Diaz, “Youth Advisory Council shares its goals with Long Beach City officials,” Signal Tribune, March 16, 2023, sigtrib.com/youth-advisory-council-shares-its-goals-with-long-beach-city-officials/.
7. See Commons Librarian, “Power and Power Mapping: Start Here,” The Commons Social Change Library, accessed July 8, 2024, commonslibrary.org/power-and-power-mapping-start-here/.
8. To view more results from the pivotal 2018 survey conducted by youth members of Long Beach Invest in Youth Coalition, see “2018 Survey Results,” Long Beach Invest in Youth Coalition, accessed July 7, 2024, www.investinyouthlb.org/invest-in-youth-survey-results-2018.
9. Ibid.
10. To learn more about the awardees of the pilot cycle of our Youth Power Participatory Budgeting process, see “Office of Youth Development Announces Youth Power PB (Participatory Budgeting) Long Beach Awardees,” press release 062823, City of Long Beach, June 28, 2023, www.longbeach.gov/press-releases/office-of-youth-development-announces-youth-power-pb-participatory-budgeting-long-beach-awardees/.
11. Kel Kray, “Adults Just Don’t Understand: Checking Out Our Everyday Adultism,” Everyday Feminism, February 7, 2015, everydayfeminism.com/2015/02/everyday-adultism/.