Washington County Teens Shine at National Youth Leadership Forum
Healthy Acadia’s Sara McConnell, Partnerships for Success Coordinator and Corrie Hunkler, Youth Engagement Coordinator, recently accompanied eight youth from Washington County to Washington D.C. to participate in CADCA’s National Youth Leadership Forum.
During the Forum, the youth led a workshop about Gateway to Opportunity (G2O), a workforce development program in Maine, and attended various interactive workshops focused on substance prevention.
The youth also had an opportunity to talk with Maine Senators Angus King and Susan Collins, as well as Representative Jared Golden and share their thoughts and concerns about public health issues important to them, including climate change, gender equality, and other key public health issues impacting our communities and our state.
The group spent a day exploring downtown Washington, D.C. taking in some incredible and inspiring exhibits at the Smithsonian and visiting our national monuments.
Our team joins this group of youth in sending a huge thank you to our community for helping to raise the funds needed to attend the CADCA Youth Leadership Forum. They, and we, are extremely grateful for this unforgettable experience and the opportunity to make a difference at the local and national level.
Here, three of the amazing and inspiring Washington County youth who participated in the Forum share feedback about their experience:
“I am so grateful to have had the privilege to join such inspiring and courageous young leaders at the CADCA youth leadership forum this year. Thank you for providing us with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore our nation’s capitol, advocate for youth voices, and speak to our state representatives about what issues we are passionate about. I am leaving this experience feeling incredibly inspired, motivated, and pushed to continue this great work. The memories I have made during this trip will stay with me forever, and I know the same is true for the other members of my team as well! ”
“I met so many incredible people my age from around the country with similar values and goals as me which was truly inspiring. My favorite part of the conference was when we presented about the Gateway 2 Opportunity program that I was a part of over the summer. After the presentation, many of the adults who had attended the workshop approached us and asked how they could create a similar program in their own cities or communities. This for me was super rewarding because by presenting my story I may have helped create more paid job opportunities for youth in different parts of the country!”
“The CADCA youth leadership forum was an absolute blast.We spent Monday exploring downtown DC visiting museums and monuments. For me, this was especially exciting as I have never been before. On top of the sightseeing, we filled our tummies with lots and lots of delicious food. The Gaylord Hotel (where we stayed) was absolutely luxurious and left us awestruck. The presentation that we did about G2O was a huge success. I feel as though we truly inspired the people who attended and we definitely made a lot more connections.
We also had an opportunity to talk to Maine State Senators and brought up important issues. This was a unique experience because 1) it is pretty rare for people my age to be able to do that and 2) feel accomplished and actually make a difference. The conversations we had were worthwhile and I’m so glad I got to participate.”
