This article is part of Rapid Growth's Voices of Youth series, which features content created by Kent County youth in partnership with Rapid Growth staff mentors. In this installment, Luke Fann explores how the Mayor’s Youth Council helps boost civic engagement among youth.


Grand Rapids students are tackling issues that affect them to the top, their mayor. Through the after-school program, Mayor’s Youth Council (MYC), dozens of teens learn about and help positively influence their local government.

The civic-minded scholars are chosen from the city’s three wards and serve eight-month terms, from October to May. Participants meet with the city commission and mayor and also engage in community projects, including the annual KidSpeak forum, in which anyone K-12 can discuss what’s important to them during an adult listening panel. The panel is an opportunity for students to speak up to community leaders, some of whom are appointed officials. 

This comes at a time when young people are especially cynical about civic engagement. According to a 2023 Tufts University report, 55% of young adults believe America is going in the wrong direction — and fewer than one-fifth think the opposite. Fortunately, more than three-quarters also believe that young people can get involved and change the country. And while some attend protests or petition for change, these Grand Rapids students address those who represent them.

Mayor’s Youth Council as an after-school option
CourtesyOscar Gomez Gutierrez
MYC is an after-school program that “empowers high school students to engage with local government, voice youth perspectives and work on community improvement initiatives alongside our city government,” says Oscar Gomez-Gutierrez, a City High junior.

Gomez-Gutierrez is the council’s secretary and is serving his second term. Before joining the MYC, he had limited knowledge about how his city was run, however, “being civically engaged through the Mayor’s Youth Council has helped me identify the issues I care about in local government.” 

Gomez-Gutierrez says those issues include supporting unhoused individuals and ensuring the city is equitable, inclusive and diverse. He is also passionate about ensuring students have access to robust after-school programming, like MYC. 

“After-school programs are incredibly important for youth, as they provide a safe and structured environment where young people can continue learning, develop new skills and engage in meaningful activities,” he says. 

MYC strives to shed light on important issues that students can learn about, such as Grand Rapids’ growing unhoused population — a number that, despite going down in 2024, is 57% higher than in 2022. The City Commission is working to decrease the number even further with a project that aims “to house 100 chronically unhoused people within 100 days.”

Members like Gomez-Gutierrez meet with many elected and appointed officials, not just city commissioners and clerks, throughout the academic year. This was important to City High sophomore Harini Manikandan, who says she “learned a lot more about the different positions” within the city’s government. The election year was especially exciting for Harini.

“Before this program, I would not have been aware [of the election],” she says. “Now, I had a front seat to the election through this program, and I was able to converse with both of the candidates running.”

Being able to show youth city projects and the government’s inner workings is exactly MYC’s goal, according to Zachary Laraway, program coordinator for Grand Rapids’ Our Community’s Children initiative, which supports MYC. Laraway sees the council as one that helps young people make purposeful decisions on issues affecting them.

“When local governments and elected/appointed leaders make an intentional investment to discuss and provide context for youth regarding current city initiatives, projects and issues, it promotes equitable community advocacy for young adults in inclusive environments across Grand Rapids,” he says.

CourtesyDuring the annual KidSpeak forum anyone K-12 can discuss what’s important to them during an adult listening panel.

How MYC involves youth in government

Many council members say they enjoy serving because their experience enlightened them to how local government is run. MYC makes a yearly trip to Lansing, where members broaden their scope from city government to state. 

Another event is the aforementioned KidSpeak forum, which City High junior Nkechinyere Okwuwasi has attended since second grade. She sees the program as a way for youth of any age to have their voices heard.

“I feel it really makes an impact when these many kids come together on a plan and talk about the problems and issues happening in the city,” Okwuwasi says. 

She felt it helped her see the Grand Rapids government on a smaller scale. But while she appreciated the council’s mission, she did not find the experience as influential as others. Okwuwasi hoped the program would go as in-depth as IB Global Politics, a school course she takes.

“It was mostly just giving our ideas to the mayor … but I feel sometimes the mayor wouldn't give me clear answers,” she says.

Even though not every meeting was helpful, Okwuwasi says other attempts were met with a “clear, precise answer.”

CourtesyJulian Wilson (center) served as the KidSpeak chair in his junior year, where he led the forum, and believes it’s important for young people to get involved in government.

Laraway says sometimes the mayor or other officials “[don’t] have the answer to issues or policies,” and that “there are not always clear solutions.” However, he believes MYC members can still make a big impact by “sharing their lived experiences” because they can “understand the needs of diverse communities or settings from a generational standpoint.”

CourtesyThe Mayor’s Youth Council makes a yearly trip to Lansing, where members broaden their scope from city government to state.

Another student found the program to be an eye-opening experience regarding how he viewed members of the government.

“I didn’t really view politicians as human,” says City High senior Julian Wilson. “They couldn’t get any grace from me.”

By participating in the council after school, he thinks the MYC “really humanized politics for me.” 

Wilson served as the KidSpeak chair in his junior year, where he led the forum, and believes it’s important for young people to get involved in government. For Wilson, allowing an even younger generation to voice their opinions was a special experience. 

“There are always people who want you to rise up and get involved,” he says.

Wilson’s experience shows why the Mayor’s Youth Council and other after-school programs are vital in ensuring the next generation can understand and engage with a government they may serve in one day. By increasing their civic engagement early, Grand Rapids youth better understand how to invest in their community to help it improve over time.


Luke Fann is a sophomore at City High Middle School, where he has been an editor since 2022 and a journalist since 2021 for the school newspaper, The City Voice. He writes about current events and technology. He also enjoys creative writing, especially fantasy and sci-fi. Luke has won several awards for his writing at MSU’s MIPA Summer Journalism Workshop for both Creative Storytelling and the Art of Storytelling.


To learn more about Rapid Growth's Voices of Youth project and read other installments in the series, click here. This series is made possible via underwriting sponsorships from the Steelcase Foundation, Frey Foundation, Michigan Afterschool Partnership and Kent ISD.