YMCA Youth in Government
Minnesota Youth in Government (YIG) is a youth-led experience that engages middle and high school youth in democratic governing leadership. Students learn about government process and gain an understanding of local, state, national and international concerns. They research and debate, participate in model Assemblies, United Nations, Youth Conferences on National Affairs, retreats and trainings, and National Judicial Competition, and gain an appreciation of diverse viewpoints in respectful ways.
e) Civics Programs
$100,000 each year is for grants to the Minnesota Civic Education Coalition: Minnesota Civic Youth, the Learning Law and Democracy Foundation, and YMCA Youth in Government to conduct civics education programs for the civic and cultural development of Minnesota youth. Civics education is the study of constitutional principles and the democratic foundation of our national, state, and local institutions and the study of political processes and structures of government, grounded in the understanding of constitutional government under the rule of law.
In 2019, before the pandemic, our Youth in Government conference welcomed 1,600 student participants, and our Model United Nations conference welcomed almost 800. We will hit one milestone with all the students who used to attend our conferences are again lined up with a school-based delegation director. We will hit another milestone when we start to welcome new delegations in communities we had not served before, because that community didn't have a YMCA branch. We would love to welcome at least 2,500 students to our Youth in Government conference and at least 1,500 to our Model United Nations conference. We believe this is achievable with this new model within the next five years. To meet this goal, we are seeking to both add new delegation directors but also to encourage returning delegation directors to make greater efforts to increase the number of students in their delegations.
In progress
e) Civics Programs
$100,000 each year is for grants to the Minnesota Civic Education Coalition: Minnesota Civic Youth, the Learning Law and Democracy Foundation, and YMCA Youth in Government to conduct civics education programs for the civic and cultural development of Minnesota youth. Civics education is the study of constitutional principles and the democratic foundation of our national, state, and local institutions and the study of political processes and structures of government, grounded in the understanding of constitutional government under the rule of law.
In 2019, before the pandemic, our Youth in Government conference welcomed 1,600 student participants, and our Model United Nations conference welcomed almost 800. We will hit one milestone with all the students who used to attend our conferences are again lined up with a school-based delegation director. We will hit another milestone when we start to welcome new delegations in communities we had not served before, because that community didn't have a YMCA branch. We would love to welcome at least 2,500 students to our Youth in Government conference and at least 1,500 to our Model United Nations conference. We believe this is achievable with this new model within the next five years.
In the period of July 1, 2019 to March 30, 2020 (at which time Y staff was furloughed due to COVID), the state program director for outreach connected with every superintendent in the state to share success stories from our programs. In addition, he conducted in-person visits to 45 schools/organizations.
During the January 2020 conference, the following delegations either fully participated for the first time or participated in a new program that they had not been involved with before:
- Carlton High School (Carlton, MN) – 3 students
- CHOICE Technical Academy (Owatonna, MN) - 3 students
- Cologne Academy (Cologne, MN) – 3 students
- Eagan YMCA (Eagan, MN) – 5 students
- Faribault High School (Faribault, MN) – 4 students
- Cook County YMCA (Cook County, YMCA) – 5 students
- Academy of Holy Angels (Minneapolis, MN) – 7 students
- Itasca County 4-H (Grand Rapids, MN) – 3 students
- Mesabi Area YMCA (Virginia, MN) – 2 students
- Parnassus Prep (Maple Grove, MN) – 12 students
- St. Anthony Village High School (Minneapolis, MN) – 5 students
The program director for outreach also successfully completed a Model UN Sampler experience for five young people from Kandiyohi County Family YMCA.
In January 2021, we hosted a virtual conference for more than 500 young people, led by 48 delegation directors, to whom we paid a stipend that was determined by the number of students in their delegation (the spreadsheet with details will be included as backup documentation). We considered this outcome to be a tremendous success given the challenges circumstances students and teachers were experiencing due to COVID. We believe that our conference was the largest gathering of Youth in Government participants in any state nationwide and we also believe that offering teachers stipends to help recruit and prepare students made a significant difference in our ability to move forward with this program during such a challenging year.